SHADOWS:' 


A  FAMILIAR  PRESENTATION 


THOUGHTS   AND    EXPERIENCES 


SPIRITUAL   MATTEES, 


WITH 

ILLUSTRATIVE  NARRATIONS. 


BY 

JOHN  WETHERBEE. 


"  Concerning  those  spiritual  beings  which 

'  Walk  the  earth 
Unseen,  both  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep.' 

Are  there,  indeed,  such  beings  ?     Is  this  space  between  us  and  the 
Deity  fllled  up  by  innumerable  orders  of  spiritual  beings  ?" — W.  Irving. 


BOSTON: 

COLBY  &  RICH,   PUBLISHERS, 
Corner  Bosworth  and  Province  Sts. 

1885. 


COPYRIGHTED  BY  JOHN  WETHERBEB,  1885. 


DEDICATION. 


Jo    J^OUISE, 

The  wife  of  my  youth,  who  is  also  my  wife  and  inspirer  now  in  my  matu- 
rity. How  much  during  the  past  two  or  three  decades  have  wo  together 
thought  over  these  once  strange,  bat  now,  by  long  association,  familiar 
realities?  When  our  first-born  passed  into  the  world  of  silence,  where  she 
is  now,  —  the  unseen  but  not  an  uuperceived  member  of  our  otherwise 
unbroken  family,  —  how  sweet  to  have  found  the  "Gates  Ajar,"  so  that 
we  both  realized  that,  though  invisible,  she  was  not  absent,  —  when  with 
fear,  but  hopefully,  we  wrote,  inspired  by  our  grief  :  — 

Oh,  philosophy !  destroy  not  the  charm 
That  cheers  thus  our  hours  of  sadness ; 

Dissolve  not  the  spell,  if  't  is  but  a  dream, 
That  changes  our  sorrow  to  gladness. 

These  little  soft  raps  we  now  and  then  hear 

I  feel  are  the  voice  of  my  daughter; 
They  seem  to  be  saying:  "  Dear  mother,  I  'm  here," 

Though  they  sound  like  the  dropping  of  water. 

Our  two  little  boys  when  they  hear  these  raps, 
Too  young,  like  us,  to  have  missed  her, 

Look  up  with  a  smile,  and  say:  "  Do  you  hear 
The  voice  of  our  dear  little  sister?  " 

Neither  philosophy  nor  experience  has  disturbed  the  current  of  our 
happy  belief;  and  while  our  loved  little  one  has  grown  into  womanhood 
in  the  land  of  souls,  the  inspiring  fact  has  strengthened  in  us  with  our 
years.  I  have  felt  like  saying  this  much,  and  to  say  also  that  this  book  is 
due  to  you,  for  I  doubt  if  I  would  have  put  my  thoughts  into  this  form  but 
for  your  persuasion  from  appreciation  of  my  written  words  and  of  me;  so 
to  you,  my  beloved,  the  w  ell  -preserved  mother  of  our  Hattie,  at  an  age 
when  sentiment  is  apt  to  have  gone  into  eclipse, —  happily  not  in  our  case, 
—  I  dedicate  these  "SHADOWS"  to  you,  feeling  assured  that  in  the  alembic 
of  your  own  mind  and  heart  they  will  show  up  both  as  summer  and  sun- 
Rhine.  J.  W. 


PREFACE. 


T  HAVE  been  rather  arbitrary  in  calling  these  pages 
-  "SHADOWS,"  for  there  is  nothing  particularly  shadowy 
in  them,  except  that  the  subject  in  many  minds  is  suggestive 
of  the  shadowy.  The  following  colloquy,  which  lately 
occurred,  as  given  below,  will  explain  its  title  as  well  as  in 
any  other  way,  if  an  explanation  is  of  any  consequence :  — 

Mr.  Shadows  was  seated,  pen  in  hand,  at  his  writing  table, 
when  his  friend,  Mr.  Boulder  Scratches,  entered  the  room, 
and,  seeing  the  situation,  said :  "  Well,  Shadows,  what  are 
you  at  now  ?"  "I  have  a  book  inside  of  me,"  said  he,  or  the 
matter  of  one,  and  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  make  it 
manifest  in  the  form."  "  On  what  subject  ?  "  said  Scratches ; 
or,  I  need  not  ask  that,  but  what  is  the  special  point  in 
Spiritualism  to  be  treated,  or  what  is  the  name  or  title  of  the 
book  to  be ?  "  "I  do  not  know  myself  yet,"  said  Shadows  ; 
there  is  time  enough  for  a  name  before  it  will  be  ready  for 
the  printer."  Scratches  said :  "  When  I  write  anything,  I 
start  with  a  title."  "  I  never  do,"  said  Shadows  ;  but  now 
you  have  spoken  of  it,  and  are  not  a  novice  in  book-making, 
I  think  a  name  would  help  me  some.  I  wish  I  had  one  cut 
and  dried,  and  adapted  to  my  thought."  "  Why  do  n't  you 
name  it  after  yourself,"  said  he  ;  your  name  and  Spiritual- 


6  PREFACE. 

ism  seem  to  be  suggestive  of  each  other.  '  Come  like  shadows^ 
so  depart,' "  he  said,  quoting  from  Macbeth,  —  the  low  or 
deep  voice  in  which  he  spoke  it  struck  him  favorably,  and 
he  said :  "  I  think  I  will ;  my  name  or  your  name,  '  Shadows, 
or  '  Scratches,'  —  I  do  n't  know  but  I  like  '  Scratches  '  the 
better,  —  but  as  you  may  wish  some  day  to  use  '  Scratches,' 
I  guess  I  will  christen  mine  '  SHADOWS.'  " 

The  endeavor  has  been  in  these  chapters,  or,  as  now 
called,  Shadows,  fast,  that  each  one  should  be  a  finished  one 
of  itself,  using  the  word  finish  in  rather  a  liberal  sense,— 
that  is,  that  each  chapter  should  be  a  readable  one,  without 
any  special  connection  with  the  other,  and  aiming  at  no 
logical  or  consecutive  order,  so  that  in  reading  them  one  can 
skip  about  without  any  confusion. 

The  endeavor  has  also  been,  in  the  matter  presented,  to 
make  the  chapters  in  their  wholeness  give  the  reason,  with- 
out particularly  saying  so,  why  I  am  a  Spiritualist,  not  that 
it  is  of  any  consequence  to  the  public  what  I  am,  or  in  what 
I  believe,  but  being  rather  a  man  of  the  world  and  of  busi- 
ness, one  who  has  touched  current  life  actively,  if  not  broadly, 
and  who  is  not  constitutionally  a  dreamer  or  a  sentimentalist. 
In  my  retired  or  private  social  circle  I  am  not  thought  to  be 
one  whose  tendencies  would  be  either  religious  or  spiritual, 
but  being,  I  trust,  both,  the  chapters,  or  shadows,  that  com- 
pose this  book,  will  explain  the  reason  why,  if  it  be  a  mat- 
ter of  interest  to  anyone. 

The  endeavor  has  also  been  to  make  this  book  a  familiar 
presentation  of  the  subject  of  modern  Spiritualism  to  those 
whom  it  may  concern,  both  among  its  exponents  and  among 


PREFACE.  7 

• 

that  wider  world  who  feel  interested  in  the  subject,  and  wish 
it  were  true,  and  who,  like  myself,  want  the  "bottom  facts." 

In  what  I  have  said  I  have  aimed  at  simplicity,  and  I 
know  I  have  been  truthful.  If  I  have  used  the  personal 
pronoun  too  much  for  good  taste,  no  one  is  more  aware  of  it 
than  I  am,  but  it  could  not  very  well  be  avoided  with  what 
I  had  in  contemplation.  My  apology  then  is  my  desire,  by 
this  familiar,  confidential  way  of  expressing  myself,  to  be 
persuasive,  or,  at  least,  to  command  the  attention  of  the 

thoughtful  reader. 

J.  W. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
INTRODUCTORY. 

Giving  in  a  familiar  way  the  Genesis  and  the  Exodus  of  these 
chapters,  which  the  author  has  somewhat  arbitrarily  called 
"Shadows" 13 

CHAPTER  II. 
ITS  RAISON  D'ETRE. 

A  substitute  for  faith.— The  Bible  a  sealed  book  without  it. 
— With  it,  a  rational  one 27 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  GATES    AJAR. 

Explaining  why  the  writer  is  a  Spiritualist,  and  obliged  to 
be  one 35 

CHAPTER  IV. 

FIRST  INTERVIEW  WITH  SPIRITS. 

Its  permanent  entry  into  the  writer's  mental  life.— Details 
of  the  interview 47 

CHAPTER  V. 

LIFE'S   AFTERNOON. 

The  "Dawning  Light"  seems  to  be  a  boon  or  consolation 
to  advancing  years. —  An  extension-claim  .  .  .  .57 

CHAPTER  VI. 

INDEPENDENT  SLATE-WRITING. 

An  elaborate  description  of  an  experience  under  the  most 
rigid  conditions G9 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PHENOMENA   WITH   COLCHESTER. 

Thoughts  on  sensuous  phenomena,  and  illustrations  from 
experience 83 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PHANTOMATIC   TABLE-TALK. 

Being  an  article  illustrative  of  the  subject  in  general    .        .    95 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER  IX. 
EPES  SARGENT. 

Some  description  of  him,  and  experiences  he  and  the  writer 
have  had  together.  —  Joseph  Cook 104 

CHAPTER  X. 

ON  LEANNESS  OP  THOUGHT. 

The  deficiency  is  made  up  by  the  sensuous  proof  of  a  spirit- 
ual source 117 

CHAPTER  XI. 

PEG-SPIRITUALISM. 

An  article  written  for,  and  published  in,  The  Radical    .        .  125 
CHAPTER  XII. 

HOME  MANIFESTATIONS. 

Giving  a  brief  account  of  phenomena  which  are  both  "bot- 
tom facts"  and  "  startling  facts "      •  138 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

SEERSHIP  OR  CLAIRVOYANCE. 

Giving  an  account  of  phenomena  with  an  intelligent  and 
sometimes  a  prophetic  basis 147 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

SUBJECTIVE  APPARITIONS. 

A  visit  of  consolation  where  the  consoler  got  consoled       .  154 
CHAPTER  XV. 

EMELINE'S  APPARITION. 

Other  "  white  ladies  "  besides  the  one  of  Avenel,  related  by 
Sir  Walter  Scott 160 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

IDENTIFICATION  OF  SPIRITS. 

The  Sage  of  Galveston  returns  according  to  promise  .        .  169 
CHAPTER  XVII. 

UNKNOWN  QUANTITIES. 

Prime  factors. — Philosophical  musings  on  human  happi- 
ness       182 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

ALLEN   DOLE. 

A  reliable  family  tradition  that  amounts  almost  to  a  personal 
experience 189 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

INDIAN-SPIRIT  INFLUENCES. 

What  the  subject  suggests,  aud  a  supplement  of  poetry.  — 
Astronomical 197 

CHAPTER  XX. 

A   WAYSIDE   SKETCH. 

An  entertaining  sketch  that  will  till  up  some  deficiencies  hi 
the  course  of  these  "  Shadows" 207 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

MATTER  AND  SPIRIT. 

Of  intercourse  with  spirits. —  Some  conditions  worth  know- 
ing. —  Illustrations.  —  Sealed  letters          ....  219 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

A  PENUMBRAL   SKETCH. 

An  afternoon  with  the  spirits.  -  A  departed  friend  returns 
from  over  the  river,  and  owns  up 229 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

MATERIALIZATION. 

Affirmations.  —  Critical    comments.  —  Illustrative    Experi- 
ences  238 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
CUI  BONO  ? 

What  is  the  good  of  it  all,  even  admitting  it  to  be  true  ?  — 
The  answer  self-evident 254 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

PREVISION. 

Containing  some  thoughts  on  prophecy,  critical  aud  illus- 
trative   259 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

DETACHED   THOUGHTS. 

Conclusions  on  several  interesting  and  important  points      .  2G7 
CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE   BOSTON   OUTLOOK. 

Thoughts  that  the  locality  suggests  to  a  Spiritualist    .        .  278 


Theodore  Parker 288 


"  A  few  years  since  I  had  a  long  conversation  with  a  bishop, 
who  is  held  in  deservedly  high  reputation  by  the  orthodox  body 
of  Christians  to  which  he  belongs.  He  introduced  the  subject 
of  modern  Spiritualism,  and  I  asked  him  how  he  regarded  its 
phenomena.  He  answered  frankly  and  satisfactorily.  He  said 
that  evidences  of  infidelity  were  multiplying  among  us ;  he  lately 
heard  a  professor  of  Harvard  College  say  that  three-fourths  of 
the  scientific  men  of  our  day  are  unbelievers,  and  skepticism  is 
beginning  to  intrude  among  the  clergy.  He  told  me  that  he 
himself,  a  few  weeks  before,  had  visited  the  death-bed  of  an 
aged  brother  in  the  ministry,  a  man  who  had  devoted  a  long  life 
with  rare  faithfulness  to  the  duties  of  his  profession.  As  they 
spoke  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  a  shade  of  sadness  passed 
over  the  dying  man's  face.  '  Ah,  bishop,'  said  he,  '  the  proof, 
the  proof!  If  we  only  had  it ! ' "— B.  D.  Owen,  in  "Debatable  Land." 

11 


I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Giving  in  a  familiar  way  the  Gf-enesis  and  the  Exodus 
of  these  chapters,  which  the  author  has  somewhat 
arbitrarily  called  "Shadows." 

The  writer  trusts  that  what  he  may  say  in  the  way 
of  introduction  will  be  as  much  a  part  of  the  main 
argument  of  the  book  as  if  he  had  written  it  under 
some  more  definite  heading.  His  intention  or  object 
can  be  better  set  forth  in  this  way  than  in  the  sev- 
eral chapters  that  follow,  saving  superfluity,  enabling 
him  to  better  present  the  subject  in  its  many  points 
with  simplicity  and  brevity. 

If  one  writes,  or  rather  publishes,  a  book,  he 
should  have  something  to  say,  and  a  motive  for  say- 
ing it.  The  writer  thinks  he  has  something  to  say 
on  what  he  considers  the  most  important  subject  for 
human  consideration;  and  most  thoughtful  people 
will  agree  with  him  on  that  point,  very  likely,  how- 
ever, qualifying  this  superlative  expression  with  an 
"{/V'  saying,  if  there  were  anything  definitely  known 
about  it.  If  the  writer,  by  his  long  experience  and 
investigation  under  great  advantages,  did  not  con- 
sider the  qualifying  if  a  superfluity,  and  that  he 


18 


14  INTRODUCTORY. 

knew  with  about  as  much  certainty  the  truth  of  this 
somewhat  transcendental  subject  as  he  did  of  things 
in  general  that  are  considered  by  thoughtful,  schol- 
arly people  as  true  and  worthy  of  attention,  he  would 
show  his  wisdom  by  remaining  silent.  Whether  he 
has  anything  to  say,  therefore,  the  production  must 
speak  for  itself.  As  for  the  motive  he  has  for  writ- 
ing the  book,  he  has  many ;  the  principal  one  is,  he 
has  been  persuaded  that  what  he  has  to  say  is  really 
wanted,  and  deserves  a  hearing.  In  this  connection, 
by  way  of  explanation,  the  following  circumstance 
will  not  be  out  of  place :  — 

He  will  now  more  familiarly  address  the  reader ; 
thinks  he  can  come  closer,  and  express  himself  bet- 
ter in  a  change  from  the  third  to  the  first  person, 
even  at  the  expense  of  apparent  egotism,  for  which 
he  asks  pardon. 

A  very  venerable  minister,  residing  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  attracted  by  the  fascinating  subject  of  a 
future  life,  began  a  correspondence  with  me.  He 
was  much  nearer  his  ninetieth  than  to  his  eightieth 
year ;  had  had  a  long,  successful,  and  useful  career ; 
had  been  for  many  years  the  settled  minister  over  a 
church  of  the  liberal,  or  Unitarian,  order.  He  had, 
of  course,  in  that  capacity,  performed  the  marriage 
and  the  funeral  services  of  his  people  and  neighbor- 
hood during  all  that  time.  He  had  consoled  the 
mourners  in  their  bereavement  when  death  had 
drafted  from  their  midst  the  old  or  the  young  faces 
of  the  family  circles  in  his  parish  or  town.  I  do  not 
know  at  what  period  these  ministerial  consolations 


INTRODUCTORY.  15 

had  become  merely  a  form,  his  faith  in  a  future  life 
having  gone  into  eclipse,  and  agnostic  ideas  had 
taken  possession  of  his  mind ;  but  when  he  began  his 
correspondence  with  me  he  had  doubts  of  the  future 
or  continued  existence  of  man  after  the  death  of  the 
body,  and  on  that  account  he  had  retired  from  his 
pulpit  into  a  private,  scholarly,  thoughtful  life. 

Somebody  had  sent  him  an  article  that  I  had  writ- 
ten, in  which  I  had  narrated  an  experience  which, 
he  said,  "if  true  to  the  letter,  would  settle  the  ques-x 
tion  affirmatively  in  his  mind,"  and  he  began  the  cor- 
respondence of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  which  grew 
interesting  to  both  of  us.  I  found  him  so  penetrat- 
ing, acute,  and  mentally  vigorous  that  I  never 
dreamed  of  his  being  so  old  a  man,  as  later  I  learned 
he  was. 

Now  I  will  take  the  liberty  of  digressing  just  for 
a  minute,  following  my  impression,  and,  doing  so, 
will  be  in  keeping  with  my  statement  that,  though 
this  is  an  "  Introduction,"  it  is  also  something  more 
than  one.  Thinking  of  this  thoughtful  old  man 
leads  me  to  say,  in  this  episodical  way,  that  mental 
activity  in  the  line  of  hopeful  thought  is  a  great 
lengthenerof  human  life, —  occupation  of  one's  mind 
on  high  mutters,  whether  on  the  scientific  plane  or 
in  the  religious  or  the  spiritual  direction,  so  long  as 
the  pabulum  is  mentally  nutritious,  that  is  truthful, 
or  seemingly  so.  I  hope  the  reader  will  understand 
me  when  I  say  rational  thought,  for  a  man  may  be 
very  earnest,  very  fluent,  and  very  full  of  moral  and 
religious  ideas,  based  on  what,  in  his  own  mind,  he 


16  INTRODUCTORY. 

does  not  consider  reasonable  or  true-,  no  matter  how 
sure  he  pretends  to  be  of  his  premises,  having  scrip- 
tural endorsement  and  the  whole  army  of  Bible  be- 
lievers to  sustain  him,  —  that  kind  of  truth  which 
may  in  a  man's  heart  seem  untrue, —  I  do  not  offer  as 
nutritious  food  or  life-prolonging.  A  sure  and  happy 
future  life,  after  the  mortal  one  has  ended,  in  one's 
mind,  based  on  sensuous  proof,  or  even  on  intuition, 
if  it  amounts  to  proof,  is  a  lengthener  of  life  in  this 
world,  and,  all  other  things  being  equal  both  in  a 
man's  Genesis  and  his  Exodus,  it  adds  youthfulness 
also  to  his  longevity.  Let  no  one  now  quote  the 
many  exceptional  instances  to  this  bold  statement, 
and  mention,  perhaps,  Theodore  Parker,  who  was 
really  eighty  when  he  was  only  fifty,  and  who  on  thiii 
theory  was  entitled  to  duration ;  nor  many  a  poor, 
thoughtless,  hard-working,  and  very  ignorant  person 
who  outstays  his  threescore-and-ten  a  decade  or  two, 
for  these  are  the  exceptions.  Statistics  show  that 
the  studious  and  scholarly  class  outlast  the  laboring 
class  in  longevity.  With  the  sensuous,  proof  that  a 
man  not  only  has  a  future  beyond  the  dark  valley, 
but  one  that  is  an  extension  of  this  life  into  the 
domain  of  the  spiritual,  as  it  becomes  a  matter  of 
general  acceptance,  will  add  to  human  longevity. 

Many  things  have  already  extended  the  average 
length  cf  human  life  from  what  it  was  a  hundred 
years  ago, —  sanitary  attention,  wisdom  in  living, 
better  ventilation,  and  the  principle  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  carrying  its  momentum  with  it,  have 
effected  this  improvement,  which  is  a  matter  of  fact, 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

now  add  to  these  important  factors  not  only  the  hope 
but  the  demonstration  of  the  survival  of  the  man 
beyond  the  death  of  the  body,  then,  when  its  belief 
is  as  general  as  is  the  belief  in  the  Copernican  sys- 
tem, or  as  it  is  to  those  who  constitute  the  body 
politic  of  Spiritualism,  it  will  add  still  more  to  the 
years  of  human  duration,  and  to  its  usefulness  also, 
for  the  face  behind  the  mask  is  not  supposed  to  be  a 
wrinkled  one. 

Returning  now  from  this  episode  to  our  venerable 
e:r-minister,  with  whom,  as  has  been  stated,  I  have 
had  much  correspondence, —  whose  earnest,  vigorous 
words  have  impressed  me  both  with  his  command  of 
language,  his  logic,  and  his  sincerity.  I  liked  very 
much  his  interrogatories,  his  incisive  thrusts  into  my 
statements,  his  desire  for  the  "bottom  facts."  I  think 
he  did  me  good,  whether  I  relieved  him  from  his 
doubts  or  not.  I  really  made  no  effort  to  convert 
him.  I  never  do  to  anyone;  am  making  none  now 
in  writing  this  book.  To  make  converts,  or  the  con- 
version of  anyone,  is  to  me  a  matter  of  indifference. 
I  sometimes  think  the  doctrine  of  election  shows 
itself  in  this  matter,  as  it  does  in  many  others,  as  a 
constitutional  quality,  so  that  the  old  orthodox  point 
may  after  all  have  had  some  natural  basis  of  truth. 
I  simply  gave  this  correspondent  what,  from  my 
point  of  view,  appeared  to  be  the  truth  regarding 
modern  Spiritualism,  illustrating  it  from  my  experi- 
ence. 

I  want  it  to  be  understood  by  all  that  I  am  a 
Spiritualist  from  experience.  I  do  not  think  I  could 


18  INTRODUCTORY. 

believe  as  I  do  on  anyone's  testimony.  People  are 
differently  constituted;  some  believe  more  readily 
than  others ;  some  people  are  helped  by  their  intui- 
tions. Theodore  Parker  once  said  to  me,  speaking 
of  "spiritual  manifestations,"  that  he  needed  no 
proofs  of  another  life ;  if  he  had  any  doubts,  it  was  of 
this  life, —  whether  this  world  was  a  reality, —  none 
at  all  of  the  other.  Blessed  are  these  men  who  are 
such  born  believers.  They  are  the  ones  who  in  all 
ages  have  kept  the  sacred  fire  of  hope  alive  and  burn- 
ing. The  mass  of  mankind,  particularly  in  this 
materialistic  age,  lack  this  inspiring  intuition,  and  so 
need  sensuous  proof,  and,  without  it,  are  without 
faith. 

Our  venerable  minister  says,  in  one  of  his  letters, 
that  if  he  had  my  experience,  and  knew  that  it  was 
so,  he  would  be  a  believer,  and  be  happy.  Some- 
times he  is  afraid,  he  says,  I  am  beguiled  by  others, 
or,  perhaps,  by  my  own  desires.  It  is  possible  I  am; 
I  am  only  human,  but  I  hardly  think  so ;  if  I  in  any 
degree  thought  so,  I  would  at  once  lay  down  my  pen. 
I  am  as  sure  of  my  facts,  in  this  line  of  thought,  as  I 
am  of  them  in  any  other  department  of  knowledge. 

As  I  propose  in  the  following  chapters  to  give 
some  of  my  experiences  as  well  as  some  of  my  infer- 
ences and  deductions,  I  am  taking  some  liberty  in 
this  introductory  chapter  to  impress  upon  the  reader, 
as  I  did  upon  this  minister,  that  I  am  dealing  with 
positive  facts,  and  not  suppositions.  I  am  sure  there 
is  a  power,  impulse,  or  force  in  nature  not  recognized 
as  yet  by  science,  or  as  something  outside  of  the  rec- 


INTRODUCTORY.  19 

ognized  domain  of  science  ;  the  best  exoteric  defini- 
tion of  it  is  Psychic  Force.  This  power,  or  force,  is 
certainly  intelligent,  even  if  ultra  human.  It  claims 
to  be  a  voice  from  "  over  the  river  "  from  departed 
spirits ;  it  claims  to  be  from  the  loved  and  lost,  from 
those  whose  bodies  are  moldering  in  the  grave, 
assuring  us  mortals  that  they  still  live.  This  intelli- 
gent "psychic  force  "  has  never  claimed  to  be  any- 
thing else  but  a  departed  human  being,  in  a  single 
instance,  from  the  rirst  manifestation  in  1848  to  the 
present  time.  It  probably  never  will.  It  looks  to 
me  as  if  it  was  going,  as  the  saying  is,  "  to  laugh 
last,"  or  best. 

With  the  evidence  I  have,  some  of  which  I  pro- 
pose to  present,  I  am  obliged  to  take  this  "Psj'chic 
Force's  "  word,  and  believe  in  dealing  with  it  I  am 
dealing,  not  with  the  dead,  but  with  those  whose 
mortal  forms  only  are  tenants  of  the  world's  sepul- 
chers,  but  who  are  still  living  entities;  I  am  obliged 
to  respect  that  claim,  for  I  would  stultify  my  under- 
standing if  I  did  not.  I  am  aware  that  outside  of 
this  mysterious  source  of  information,  this  "  spiritual 
environment,"  that  the  subject  suggests,  is  not 
proved;  so,  in  a  sense,  to  assume  it,  is  begging  the 
question ;  but  if  it  be  admitted  as  a  verity,  as  the 
Bible,  and  as  poetry  in  general  is  authority  for, 
"  that  we  are  surrounded  by  a  countless  multitude  of 
witnesses,"  or,  in  the  words  of  the  poet,  that 

"The  spiritual  world 
Lies  all  about  us,  and  its  avenues 
Are  open  to  the  unseen  feet  of  phantoms 


20  INTRODUCTORY. 

That  come  and  go,  and  we  perceive  them  not, 
Save  by  their  influence." 

That  is,  make  the  scriptural  or  sentimental  idea  a 
matter  of  fact,  then  one  must  explain  the  phenomena 
of  modern  Spiritualism  as  being  what  it  claims  to  be, 
— the  spirits  of  the  departed,  as  poetically  expressed 
in  the  following  lines :  — 

"  There  is  a  world  of  spirits  fair 

All  around  us  and  unseen; 
And  those  whom  we  call  'dead'  are  there 
With  all  that  erst  on  earth  hath  been." 

As  I  believe  in  this  spiritual  environment,  I  be- 
lieve the  claim  that  in  every  case  this  "Psychic 
Force  "  makes,  which  it  made  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  and  which  in  the  modern  form  it  makes  today. 
Perhaps  the  older  affirmation  will  express  the  idea 
as  well  as  any  other, —  so  I  will  quote  that,  where 
John  the  Revelator,  in  the  presence  of  the  angel, 
which  it  seems  was  only  a  departed  spirit,  said  (Rev. 
xix:10):  "And  I  fell  at  his  feet  to  worship  him. 
And  he  said  unto  me,  See  thou  do  it  not :  I  am  thy 
fellow-servant,  and  of  thy  brethren  that  have  the  tes- 
timony of  Jesus :  worship  God." 

I  do  not  know  anything  in  the  whole  realm  of 
physics,  or  what  are  called  real  things,  more  surely 
than  I  know  that  there  is  this  spiritual  surrounding 
which  is  taught  in  the  Bible,  and  taught  by  modern 
Spiritualism. 

The  human  intellect,  as  Ernest  Renan  says,  is  infi- 
del ;  it  asks  questions,  and  so  it  should ;  but  the 


INTRODUCTORY.  21 

heart  is  the  true  believer ;  hence  poetry  bubbles  out 
of  it  full  of  nutritious  sentiment  that  ought  to  be 
true,  and  what  the  sensuous  proof,  through  modern 
Spiritualism,  makes  literal  and  true.  Here  is  one  of 
its  expressions ;  what  a  dreary  world  this  would  be 
if  it  were  not  a  hope  and  a  possibility :  — 

"  Oh !  Heaven  is  nearer  than  mortals  think, 
When  they  look  with  a  trembling  dread 
At  the  misty  future  that  stretches  on 
From  the  silent  home  of  the  dead." 

In  corresponding  with  this  aged  but  strong-minded 
man,  I  found  myself  drawn  to  him,  and  though  he 
was  at  that  period  of  life  that  demonstration  of  this 
matter  was  soon  to  be  in  the  order  of  nature,  I  felt 
moved  to  be  very  open  and  frank  with  him, — am 
astonished  sometimes  that  I  made  the  effort  I  did  to 
justify  my  belief  and  to  defend  my  perspicuity.  Per- 
haps I  was  influenced  to  do  so ;  knowing  what  I  do, 
I  am  obliged  to  believe  that  there  is  this  influence, 
or  watchful  supervision  of  the  world  of  spirits  on  or 
over  the  affairs  of  every-day  life.  At  any  rate,  writ- 
ing, as  I  generally  do,  to  be  printed  rather  than  for 
autographical  correspondence,  it  was  singular  that  I 
wrote  this  man  so  extensively  as  I  did,  and  which,  I 
trust,  as  I  have  said,  has  benefited  both  of  us. 

When  I  received  his  last  letter,  which  only  ante- 
dates this  chapter  a  few  days,  it  seemed  to  call  for 
this,  may  I  say,  "  diffusion  of  knowledge."  If  what 
I  had  written  to  him  in  this  fugitive  way  seemed  to 
him  valuable  enough  to  say,  rather  urgingly,  that  I 


22  INTRODUCTORY. 

ought  to  print  it,  and  knowing  his  sincerity  when  he 
says  in  the  last  letter,  to  which  I  have  referred :  "  I 
ain  not  well,  and  so  cannot  answer  your  last,  but  my 
main  object  in  this  is  to  make  a  suggestion,  and  it  is 
this :  that  you  gather  what  you  have  written  to  me 
on  this  subject,  including  some  of  your  experiences 
from  which  you  so  freely  draft,  into  a  book,  which 
would  be  of  a  very  interesting  and  readable  charac- 
ter, and  just  what  thoughtful  people  want  to  read. 
Is  not  this  a  suggestion  worthy  of  your  serious 
thought?  I  have  not  less  than  fourteen  articles  from 
you  that,  of  themselves,  would  make  an  attractive 
volume.  Your  letters  to  me  on  the  subject  are  very 
valuable,  and  are  worthy  of  a  more  extended  peru- 
sal." 

It  would  seem,  then,  by  a  person  competent  to 
judge,  that  some  of  my  thoughts,  experiences,  and 
hurried  reflections  have  a  value.  I  have  had  other 
similar  suggestions  from  various  sources.  A  letter 
from  Alabama,  just  received,  written  in  a  very  per- 
suasive manner,  "  to  put  some  of  my  thoughts  into  a 
book  form  on  this  subject,  in  which  we  are  all  so  in- 
terested, and  know  so  little  about,  and  I  feel,  when- 
ever I  read  anything  of  yours,  I  am  getting  an 
honest  and  intelligent  view  of  the  subject  from  your 
standpoint."  These  letters,  coming  so  together, 
seemed  to  say  to  me  that  I  had  better  venture  to  do 
so.  Perhaps  the  intimation  to  do  so  dates  higher 
than  the  State  of  New  York,  or  of  Alabama,  or  other 
mundane  localities.  We  do  not  always  know  the 
sources  of  our  inspiration.  I  am  inclined  to  think 


INTRODUCTORY.  23 

our  thoughts  and  acts,  great  and  small,  are  the  result 
of  influences  from  the  world  of  spirits,  so  near  and 
yet  so  remote.  It  seems  to  be  asking  the  reader  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  the  claim  is  proved  before  I 
begin  my  story,  so  I  will  close  this  preliminary  chap- 
ter, it  having  done  its  work  by  embodying  the  rea- 
sons for  issuing  the  book.  Whether  there  are  any 
occult  or  mystic  influences  mixed  up  with  the  reasons 
mentioned  can  be  better  told  after  it  is  finished  than 
now  in  its  preliminary  pages.  I  am  inclined  to 
indorse  most  heartily,  from  close  observation  of  the 
matter,  the  affirmation  of  the  quaint  Thoreau,  some- 
times called  the  Walden  hermit :  "  We  should  con- 
sider that  the  flow  of  thought  is  more  like  a  tidal 
wave  than  a  prone  river,  and  is  the  result  of  a  celes- 
tial influence,  not  of  any  declivity  in  its  channel." 


Where  are  now  the  fabled  beings  that  peopled  space, 

That  had  their  haunts  in  dale  or  piny  mountain, 

Or  forest  by  slow  stream,  or  pebbly  spring, 

Or  chasm,  or  wat'ry  depths?    All  these  have  vanished ; 

Tiiey  live  no  longer  in  the  faith  of  reason  ! 

But  still  the  heart  doth  need  a  language ;  still 

Doth  the  old  instinct  bring  back  the  old  names, 

And  to  yon  starry  world  they  now  are  gone ; 

Spirits,  or  gods,  that  used  to  share  this  earth 

With  man  as  with  their  friends. 

Oh,  never  more  will  I  blame  his  faith, 

In  the  might  of  stars  and  angels 

This  visible  nature  and  this  common  world 

Is  all  too  narrow." — Cokridgc. 


II. 


ITS   EAISON  D  ETKE. 

A  substitute  for  faith.  —  The  Bible    a   sealed  book 
without  it.  —  With  it,  a  rational  one. 

Modern  Spiritualism  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of 
argument  as  it  is  a  matter  of  experience ;  still  some 
may  like  to  know  a  little  of  the  experience  that  has 
made  me  (who  am  something  of  a  worldly  man,  or 
one  who  has  touched  the  world  rather  broadly)  one 
of  its  adherents.  Its  truth,  or  foundation  in  fact, 
came  to  me  in  such  a  perfectly  satisfactory  manner 
over  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  that  it  established  it- 
self in  my  mind,  and  has  been  my  religion  ever  since. 
No  one  can  foretell  with  certainty  how  the  future 
may  find  him,  but  I  think  it  one  of  the  certain  things 
in  my  future  career  that  I  will  not  backslide  or  fall 
from  its  grace ;  that  it  has  come  to  me  to  stay,  and, 
as  it  is  my  religion  now,  so  will  it  continue  to  be. 

It  certainly  ought  to  be  true.  If  death  ended  all, 
and  there  was  no  future  conscious  life  to  departed 
human  beings,  that  when  a  man  died  that  was  the 
end  of  him,  certainly  to  most  people  this  life  would 
be  a  failure.  A  continuation  of  a  man's  career 

27 


28  SHADOWS. 

beyond  the  grave,  from  a  human  standpoint,  is 
demanded  on  the  score  of  justice.  The  Christian,  or 
civilized  world,  sees  that  everywhere,  and  rests  its 
hope  on  Divine  revelation,  or  (-rod's  word,  for  assur- 
ance. If  the  Bible  were  God's  word,  that  would  be 
an  assurance.  That  holy  and  very  valuable  old  book 
has,  however,  a  very  human  flavor.  God  may  speak 
in  it,  or  through  it,  but  certainly  not  in  any  real  or 
literal  manner.  He  speaks  through  it  only  as  the 
Great  First  Cause  speaks  in  and  through  everything 
in  the  world  around  us,  and  in  the  heavens  above  us. 
Men  in  old  times,  as  now,  may  have  been  inspired, 
and  uttered  or  written  wise  thoughts  even  beyond 
their  own  normal  powers,  many  of  them  worthy  of 
high  sources,  but  certainly  no  one  in  this  age  will 
consider  the  Bible  as  God's  word  literally  in  any 
sense,  even  admitting  it  to  be  the  most  valuable  book 
extant.  My  experience  in  spiritual  manifestations 
has  enhanced  its  value  to  me,  because  I  see  permeat- 
ing that  book,  from  Genesis  to  Revelations,  evidences 
of  an  intelligent  spiritual  environment,  interested  in 
and  influencing  mankind,  and  that,  also,  is  the  teach- 
ing of  modern  Spiritualism  today.  Expressed  by  a 
modern  poet  thus  :  — 

"  The  spirit  world,  around  this  world  of  sense, 
Rests  like  an  atmosphere,  and  everywhere 
Wafts  through  these  earthly  mists  and  vapors  dense, 
A  vital  breath  of  more  ethereal  air." 

In  an  age  when  this  world  was  the  center  of  the 
universe,  and  the  sun  a  ball  of  molten  iron  about  the 


ITS  BAISON  D'ETRE.  29 

size  of  the  territory  of  Greece,  these  influences,  or 
"  strange  visitants r'  from  this  environment,  were  mis- 
understood, intentionally  or  otherwise.  In  one  case, 
it  will  be  remembered,  a  correction  was  made  by  the 
angel,  or  divine  messenger,  or  departed  spirit,  by  his 
saying  to  the  saintly  apostle :  "  I  am  one  of  thy  breth- 
ren of  the  prophets."  At  last  we  are  learning  to  take 
the  spirit  of  that  book  and  not  its  letter,  but  that  does 
not  make  the  basis  of  a  future  life  any  better,  or  any 
more  certain,  for  the  definition  of  the  spirit  of  it  will 
vary  in  differently  constituted  minds;  in  the  last 
analysis  it  becomes  nothing  but  human  testimony, 
and  of  no  authority.  In  fact,  the  Bible  is  a  sealed 
book  without  modern  Spiritualism.  Interpreted  by 
it,  there  is  proof  that  man  survives  death,  but  that 
makes  one  a  Spiritualist.  Outside  of  modern  Spirit- 
ualism there  is  no  proof  that  the  man  survives  the 
death  of  his  body.  Helped  by  this  later  light,  many 
things  in  the  Bible,  and  outside  of  it,  become  point- 
ers, or  proofs,  of  man's  survival,  but  that  aid  is  the 
property  of  and  belongs  to  modern  Spiritualism. 

To  make  a  future  conscious  life  certain  one  must 
return  from  the  dead,  or  a  message  must  come 
from  one  who  has  ended  his  mortal  career,  and  it 
must  be  unmistakable. 

"Ah!  blow  me  the  scent  of  one  lily,  to  tell 

That  it  grew  outside  of  the  world  at  most ; 
Ah !  show  me  a  plume  to  touch,  or  a  shell 
That  whispers  of  some  unearthly  coast," 

is  what  the  hungry  human  heart  says,  and  has  a  right 
to  say,  and  that  is  what  modern  Spiritualism  claims 


30  SHADOWS. 

to  do,  and  what  it  certainly  has  done  to  me.  It  is 
the  object  of  these  chapters,  which  I  have  called 
"Shadows,"  to  try  to  establish  that  claim.  I  hardly 
expect  to  do  it,  for  the  reason  already  stated,  that 
the  subject  is  more  a  matter  of  experience  than  of 
argument ;  but  we  will  do  the  best  we  can,  and  we 
will  certainly  be  truthful, 

" and  give  to  our  airy  'something  ' 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

Intuitive  souls  all  over  the  world,  and  all  through 
the  ages,  have  felt  their  immortality,  and  the  earth 
itself  is  ominous  with  the  idea.  The  poet  interviews 
it  with  his  soul,  and  utters  his  thought  in  verse, 
speaking  wiser  than  he  knows,  and  thus  often  breath- 
ing the  spirit  of  man's  post-mortem  life ;  hungry 
humanity  reads  the  sentiment,  and  wishes  it  was  real, 
as  well  as  poetic.  One  message  from  the  world  of 
spirits,  one  soul  returning  after  having  passed  through 
death,  would  change  poetry  into  truth,  and  bring  the 
heart's  intuitions  into  the  domain  of  the  positive. 
Until  that  message  comes,  or  that  "  departed  "  one 
returns,  the  woman  of  Endor  may  raise  Samuel, 
Moses  and  Elias  be  transfigured  before  Peter,  James 
and  John  and  the  Revelator  bow  before  the  angel, 
and  Hamlet  may  see  the  ghost  of  the  royal  Dane 
armed,  cap-a-pie,  and  Longfellow  may  tell  in  his 
pensive,  almost  truthful,  way  that 

"  Through  the  open  doors 
The  harmless  phantoms  on  their  errands  glide 
With  feet  that  make  no  noise  upon  the  floors. 


ITS  RAISON  D'ETRE.  31 

We  meet  them  at  the  door-way,  on  the  stair, 
Along  the  passages  they  come  and  go, 

Impalpable  impressions  on  the  air, 

A  sense  of  something  moving  to  and  fro ;  " 

.and  nervous  women  may  see  sainted  shadows  pass 
the  open  doors  of  darkened  rooms  that  even  prove 
sometimes  to  be  premonitions ;  but  they  are  all 
"  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of,"  whether  records 
of  revelation  or  drafts  of  imagination  bodying  forth 
the  forms  of  things  unseen  for  the  poet's  pen  to 
mold  into  shape ;  they  are  punctured  bubbles,  van- 
ishing in  the  light  of  reason  and  common  sense,  and 
are  at  best  but  what  the  following  agnostic  lines  ex- 
press :  — 

"  The  hollow  sea-shell,  which  for  years  hath  stood 
On  dusty  shelves,  when  held  against  the  ear 
Proclaims  its  stormy  parent,  and  we  hear 
The  faint,  far  murmur  of  the  distant  flood. 
We  hear  the  sea.     The  sea?    It  is  the  blood 
In  our  own  veins,  impetuous  and  near, 
And  pulses  keeping  pace  with  hope  and  fear. 
So  in  my  heart  I  hear,  as  in  a  shell, 

Distinct,  distinct,  though  faint  and  far  it  be. 
Thou  fool !  this  echo  is  a  cheat  as  well, 
The  hum  of  earthly  instincts ;  and  we  crave 
A  world  unreal  as  the  shell-heard  sea." 

If  modern  Spiritualism  has  any  basis,  any  raison 
d'etre  in  its  claim,  that  there  are  messages  from  the 
loved  and  lost,  that  the  spirit  world  can,  and  does, 
more  or  less  intelligently,  communicate  with  the  inhab- 
itants of  earth ;  and  if  this  is  true,  the  ideal  world  be- 
comes more  or  less  a  real  one,  many  a  fascinating  fable 
becomes  a  reality,  and  it  puts  a  torch  behind  the  cur- 


32  SHADOWS. 

tain  in  the  picture  of  human  life,  making  it  a  trans- 
parency of  light  and  warmth,  as  well  as  beauty. 
And  we  can  feel  it  to  be  really  so  when  the  poet 
says : — 

"  That  ever  near  us,  though  unseen, 

The  dear  immortals  tread ; 
For  all  the  boundless  universe 
Is  life, —  there  are  no  dead." 


"Can  it  bo  true,  this  wondrous  story  old, 
Of  fair  green  pastures  where  the  waters  flow 
In  sweetest  music  over  golden  sands, 
Where  we  shall  meet  again  the  lost  of  earth? 

Can  such  a  country  be 
As  this  of  which  our  hopeful  spirits  dream. 
For  which  we  yearn,  and  hope,  and  trust,  and  pray 
Such  prayers  to  Him,  the  Being  Infinite? 
Oh !  can  it  be  that  we  shall  grasp  again 
The  cold  white  hands  which  here  we  fold  to  rest 
Upon  the  breast,  thrilling  with  life  anew? 
And  feel  again  upon  our  lips  and  brow 
The  kisses  of  the  lips  that  have  grown  cold 
While  kissing  us?    And  is  the  grave 
Only  a  narrow  gate,  through  which  we  pass 
To  peace  and  rest  and  calm?  " — Anonymous. 


III. 

THE  GATES   AJAR. 

Explaining  why  the  writer  is  a  Spiritualist,  and  why 
obliged  to  be  one. 

When  death  entered  my  family,  we  had  three 
young  children ;  the  oldest  was  a  girl.  She  was  six 
years  old  when  death  took  her.  I  had  a  religious 
experience  in  my  early  life,  was  a  church-member  for 
a  decade.  At  the  period  of  this  grief  I  was,  and  had 
been  for  many  years,  a  materialist.  When  this  little 
girl's  light  went  out,  leaving  us  in  the  dark,  I  felt 
that  that  was  the  end  of  her.  The  mother  took  the 
loss  naturally  harder  than  I  did.  I  was,  and  am,  of 
a  philosophical  turn  of  mind,  and  considered  this  the 
fate  and  the  end  of  all ;  but  it  had  come  early  to  this 
bright  flower  in  the  garden  of  our  home.  As  there 
was  no  help  for  it,  it  must  be  submitted  to.  This 
was  our  grief.  The  mother,  it  may  have  been  provi- 
dential, and,  from  later  experiences,  I  think  it  was, 
came  accidentally  in  contact  with  some  of  those  who 
were  interested  in  the  new  light  of  modern  Spiritual- 
ism, and  seeing  a  medium  was  suggested  to  her.  As 
the  drowning  man  catches  at  a  straw,  she  caught  at 

33 


36  SHADOWS. 

this.  Afterwards,  when  hearing  her  report  of  what 
she  had  heard  and  seen  in  her  contact  with  the  sub- 
ject from  time  to  time,  it  seemed  silly  business,  and 
made  no  impression  upon  me ;  but  I  saw  no  harm  in 
it,  as  it  occupied  her  mind,  and  gave  her  something 
to  think  of.  My  wife  was  not  reconciled  to  the  loss 
of  our  child,  and  looking  into  this  matter  might  be  a 
harmless  benefit  to  her,  but  otherwise  I  saw  no  sense 
in  it,  and  certainly  none  in  the  phenomena,  as  she 
related  to  me  from  time  to  time  what  took  place.  I 
could  not  see  anything  sensible  in  supposing  spirits 
made  raps,  or  of  the  tipping  of  tables,  or  any  percep- 
tion of  clairvoyant  images  of  little  girls  that  nobody 
could  see  but  the  medium,  or  woman  who  called  her- 
self a  seeress.  I  think  it  grieved  my  wife  that  I  did 
not  interest  myself  more,  and  it  seemed  to  partake  a 
little  of  cold-heartedness  on  my  part.  She  was  wrong 
there,  for  I  was  all  feeling,  but  felt,  as  the  majority 
feel  today,  that  the  subject  was  beneath  the  notice  or 
ittention  of  sensible  people.  My  wife  having  confi- 
<lence  in  me  and  my  acuteness,  thought  I  could  and 
ought  to  settle  this  matter  as  either  something  or 
nothing.  I  felt,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  it  was  a 
delusion.  I  hated  to  stoop  to  conquer  it,  and  I  saw 
it  was  occupying  her  mind,  and  it  was,  at  best,  an 
innocent  amusement.  This  interest  continued  many 
weeks,  even  a  month  or  two,  and  was  my  wife's  prin- 
cipal thought,  and  I  hated  to  disabuse  her  of  it,  and 
yet,  from  what  I  heard  or  read  in  the  papers,  I  began 
to  have  fears  that  it  possibly  might  be  an  injury, 
and  I  had  begun  to  think  to  myself  how  I  could 


THE  GATES  AJAR.  37 

adroitly  puncture  it  so  that  she  could  see  it  herself 
to  be  a  delusion  without  any  overt  act  of  mine,  for 
I  felt  that  I  would  be  belittling  myself  to  meddle  with 
it  as  I  would  to  go  to  a  Gypsy  to  get  my  fortune  told. 

Early  one  afternoon,  just  as  she  was  going  out  for 
a  walk  or  a  call,  she  met  her  sister  on  the  steps  just 
coming  to  see  her.  After  exchanging  a  few  words, 
my  wife  said  to  her  sister  that  she  was  going  to  see 
a  medium,  and  asked  her  if  she  did  not  want  to  go 
to.  The  sister  had  never  been  at  or  heard  of  such 
sittings,  rather  liked  the  idea,  and  they  went  together, 
it  seems  to  me  it  was  to  a  Mrs.  Leeds,  of  whom  my 
wife  had  incidentally  heard.  On  reaching  the  house  in 
Carver  Street,  they  found  Mrs.  Leeds  was  absent  on 
a  visit  to  Judge  Edmonds,  in  New  York.  They  were, 
of  course,  disappointed,  and,  turning  to  go  away, 
they  asked  the  girl  who  had  waited  on  the  door  if 
she  knew  any  good  medium,  and  she  gave  them  the 
address  of  Mrs.  Hayden,  of  Hayward  Place,  and  the 
ladies  went  directly  there. 

I  am  being  very  minute  in  relating  this  occurrence, 
as  it  turned  out  to  be  the  "Dawning  Light"  to  me, 
and  would  to  anyone  under  the  same  circumstances, 
as  it  covers  the  whole  ground  claimed  by  modern 
Spiritualism,  and  every  solution  for  it  conceivable, 
and  nothing  but  an  admittance  of  the  truth  of  it,  as 
founded  in  fact,  can  explain  this  one  experience. 

I  never  conversed  with  an  intelligent  person  who 
did  not  admit  that  it  compelled  a  belief,  if  the  facts 
were  as  I  have  stated  them.  Hence  my  being  so 
particular  in  this  narrative  which  I  offer,  as  I  do  in. 


38  SHADOWS. 

fact  the  whole  of  this  book  as  well  as  this  chapter, 
as  the  exact  truth. 

I  was  left  at  home,  as  these  ladies  departed,  I 
knowiDg  nothing  of  their  intentions.  I  did  not  know 
where  they  were  going,  or  that  they  had  started 
on  a  spiritual  expedition.  What  I  have  said  in  the 
foregoing  lines  I  learned  afterwards,  and  the  follow- 
ing cogitative  and  circumstantial  statement  will  ex- 
plain it :  — 

I  was  in  my  library  up  stairs,  and  alone.  I  had 
some  writing  to  do,  but  the  subject  of  spiritual  mani- 
festations was  for  the  moment  occupying  my  mind, 
and  in  their  connection  with  my  wife  who  had  just 
gone  out,  as  I  have  described,  and  1  began  to  cogi- 
tate. I  said  to  myself,  ought  I  not  to  look  into  this 
matter,  and  why  is  it  necessary  to  go  to  a  stranger  to 
get  a  message  from  any  of  my  departed  friends,? 
That  has,  thought  I,  an  unreasonable  look  to  begin 
with.  1  had  forgotten,  or  it  did  not  occur  to  me, 
that  King  Saul,  when  in  grief  and  sore  distressed,  had 
to  go  in  that  way  to  the  woman  of  Endor  before  he 
could  connect  himself  with  or  get  a  message  from 
his  departed  friend  Samuel.  In  beginning  this  cogi- 
tation, it  rather  appeared  to  me  that  if  my  little 
daughter  was  alive,  though  invisible,  or  any  spirit  of 
my  loved  and  lost  relatives  or  friends  had  any  mes- 
sage for  me,  here  and  now  was  the  time  and  place  for 
the  manifestations.  Here  in  this  room  is  the  old 
table,  and  on  it  the  old  Bible,  printed  in  1751,  that 
old  familiar  faces  of  my  youth  sat  at  and  turned  the 
leaves  of  the  book,  and  show  and  explain  the  pic- 


THE  GATES   AJAR.  39 

tures  in  it,  and  I  began  to  grow  sentimental  with  the 
pleasures  of  memory.  I  seemed  to  grow  hospitable 
to  the  idea,  or  rather  to  the  images  of  these  old  faces 
that  were  as  vivid,  in  my  mind,  as  the  old  book  was 
that  had  outlasted  them  to  my  senses.  I  believed 
everything  was  subject  to  law,  and  that  it  was  pos- 
sible that  the  room  was  then  full  of  spirits,  though  my 
intellect  was  infidel  to  the  idea ;  still  in  my  heart  there 
arose  a  sacred  voice  which  said  it  was  a  possible  thing. 
Perhaps  there  is  something  wanting  which  I  have 
not  got,  thought  I,  which,  if  I  had,  or  was  in  the 
right  condition,  these  old  familiar  faces,  or  some  of 
them,  might  issue  out  of  the  silent  air,  or  in  some 
way  manifest  or  reach  me.  Some  remembrances  of 
family  love,  that  need  not  be  mentioned  now,  but 
may  be  before  this  book  is  ended,  had  some  effect 
upon  me,  and  I  began  to  dwell  on  it  in  my  imagina- 
tion,—  build  castles  in  the  air,  as  some  call  it, —  I  did 
alone  what  I  would  have  been  ashamed  to  have  done 
in  any  company.  I  said  to  the  circumambient,  vacant 
air  vocally,  if  there  are  any  beings  present  who 
can  hear  me  (thinking  then  of  my  child,  Hattie, 
and  my  sister),  I  wish  you  would  be  present  when 
my  wife  attends  any  of  these  sittings,  and  will  you 
send  me  a  message?  and  remembering  I  had  had 
messages  now  and  then, —  love-sending,  or  remem- 
brances which  had  no  convincing  character  to  them, 
and  what  anyone  could  say,  and  not  be  out  of  the 
way ;  so  I  said,  send  me  this  message, —  which  I  then 
repeated.  I  will  not  repeat  here  the  message  I  asked 
for ;  it  was  characteristic  of  me,  and  was  religiously 


40  SHADOWS. 

asked  for,  but  it  might  be  construed  humorously,  and 
in  the  connection  seem  frivolous,  for  though  I  am 
constitutionally  light-hearted  and  cheerful,  I  have  a 
very  pensive  undertone,  and  on  this  subject,  whatever 
may  be  my  manner,  I  am  at  heart  always  serious. 

It  occurred  to  me,  also,  that  spirits  might  see  and 
not  hear,  and,  having  a  pen  before  me,  I  wrote  the 
message  as  well  as  spoke  it,  and  folded  up  the  paper 
on  which  it  was  written,  and  put  it  into  my  desk, 
where  no  one  could  see  or  get  it.  I  certainly  did 
not  expect  any  response.  I  did  not  ask  for  it  with 
any  faith.  I  do  not  know  as  if  I  ever  would  have 
thought  of  it  again,  except  that  the  subject,  in  its 
connection  with  my  wife,  was  often  in  my  mind,  and 
this  trifling  circumstance  would,  therefore,  not  have 
been  forgotten.  I  however  had  the  feeling  that  I 
would  give  all  I  had  in  the  world  if  there  had  been 
any  foundation  of  truth  in  this  matter,  which,  how- 
ever, did  not  seem  to  me  at  all  probable  or  possible. 

I  did  not  know,  as  I  have  already  said,  where  my 
wife  had  gone.  What  I  had  said,  thought,  and  done 
alone  in  my  library  was  known  only  to  myself.  Late 
in  the  afternoon  I  went  out,  and  on  my  return  at 
tea-time,  the  first  thing  my  wife  said  to  me  was : 
"There  is  a  message  for  you  from  Hattie,"  handing 
me  a  small,  rolled-up  strip  of  paper,  she  looking  at 
me,  all  alive  with  expectation,  for  she  knew,  under 
any  circumstances,  the  message  would  please  me,  as 
a  definitely  characteristic  one,  of  or  for  me.  I  un- 
rolled, read  it,  and  found  a  long  string  of  letters  not 
divided  into  words,  but  it  was  the  message  exactly, 


THE  GATES   AJAB.  41 

when  divided  off  into  words,  that  I  had  asked  for  a 
few  hours  before. 

Now,  suppose  I  am  telling  the  exact  truth,  setting 
nothing  down  for  effect  or  for  argument,  and  I  assure 
the  reader  such  is  the  fact  exactly  as  I  have  stated 
it,  —  what  else  can  it  be  but  the  message  from  a 
spirit?  It  purported  to  come  from  Hattie  ;  but  she 
could  not  write.  She  was  a  little  girl  only  a  few 
months  over  six  years  old ;  but  that  is  a  matter  of 
minor  importance.  Did  it  come  from  the  other 
world  ?  That  settled,  settles  the  whole  matter ;  and 
how  could  it  have  been  anything  else  ?  This  matter 
being  so  important,  some  reflections  and  deductions 
will  not  be  superfluous. 

There  was  certainly  no  mind-reading  (mind-read- 
ing seems  to  be  the  bete  noir  of  the  skeptic  in  this 
department  of  thought),  for  I  concocted  the  message 
alone,  and  I  was  not  present  at  this  Endoric  inter- 
view. No  one  knew  but  myself  what  I  had  done  but 
the  "  circumambient  air,"  or  the  invisible  dwellers  in 
it,  and  of  course  around  me.  My  wife  and  her  sister 
knew  nothing  of  it,  and  if  the  medium  had  been  a 
fraud  and  had  made  the  raps  herself,  she  must  have 
had  a  royal  road  of  information  to  have  got  cogniz- 
ance of  my  act  or  wishes.  I  did  not  know  there  was 
such  a  woman  in  the  world.  It  was  the  first  time 
my  wife  had  ever  been  at  her  house,  and  did  not 
know  she  was  going  there  when  she  left  home.  The 
reader  will  remember  she  got  the  address  from  a 
domestic  at  a  house  where  she  had  never  been,  and 
was  unknown,  and  Hay  ward  Place  was  over  a  mile  off 


42  SHADOWS. 

from  where  I  lived,  and  had  had  this  private  colloquy 
with  what  I  now  consider  my  spiritual  surrounding, 
or  environment. 

So,  look  at  the  matter  in  any  light  one  chooses,  if 
the  writer's  head  is  level,  and  is  telling  the  truth, 
there  certainly  was  a  message  from  "  over  the  river." 
If  anyone  doubts  me,  thinks  I  am  a  special  pleader 
for  the  cause,  and  am  overstating,  when  I  assure  him 
I  am  exact  and  truthful,  then  this  book  of  "shad- 
ows "  is  not  for  him,  and  he  may  as  well  skip  me  and 
pass  on  to  something  that,  to  him,  will  be  more  inter- 
esting or  instructive. 

As  I  have  said,  I  feel  like  being  very  particular, 
and,  perhaps,  long-drawn  out  in  this  statement  more 
than  I  intend  to  be  in  the  chapters  that  follow,  for 
this  one  experience  is,  in  the  writer's  mind,  a  clincher, 
so  to  speak,  and  settles  the  whole  question  in  his 
mind  affirmatively.  I  will  now  close  it  with  a  brief 
account  of  the  sitting  itself. 

These  ladies,  when  they  reached  the  medium's 
house  in  Hayward  Place,  found  there  the  lady,  and 
stated  what  they  had  come  for,  and  were  invited  to 
sit  down  at  the  table  used  for  the  purpose  of  spirit 
communications,  the  medium  sitting  at  it  also.  The 
sister  held  the  pencil, —  she  had  been  requested  to 
by  my  wife  before  entering,  to  see  if  it  made  any 
difference.  Raps  were  at  once  heard,  the  spirits  an- 
swering yes  and  no  to  questions.  Soon  the  alphabet 
was  used,  and  as  the  letter  wanted  was  reached  a  rap 
was  heard,  and  thus  some  singular  but  very  true 
messages  were  given  intelligently  in  this  way,  but 


THE  GATES   AJAR.  43 

they  need  not  be  recorded  here.  After  a  little  while 
the  letters  of  a  message  read :  "Hattie  is  here : "  My 
wife  said :  "  I  ain  glad  you  have  come ;  have  you 
anything  to  say  to  your  father  ?  "  —  and  three  raps 
indicated  "Yes."  The  alphabet  was  then  used,  and 
the  letters  noted  down  as  the  raps  signified  the  right 
one ;  and,  when  finished,  it  was  a  string  of  letters,  as 
I  have  said,  not  divided  into  words,  but  which  were 
easily  read,  particularly  by  my  wife,  who  saw  that  it 
was  somewhat  characteristic,  and  knew  it  would 
please  me,  and  perhaps  be  a  test.  She  did  not  know 
until  she  had  got  home  and  given  it  to  me,  and  I  Md 
told  her  the  facts,  that  I  had  asked  the  spirits  to  send 
the  message,  and  the  string  of  letters  written  down 
in  that  way, — the  letter  wanted  being  rapped  at 
when  it  was  reached, —  and  in  their  wholeness  was 
the  message  I  had  asked  for  in  the  manner  stated. 

As  a  finish  to  this  chapter,  let  me  close  with  a 
suggestive  verse  or  two  that  I  find  in  my  scrap-book, 
and  then  the  reader  can  do  his  own  thinking :  — 

"  But,  hark !     I  hear  a  gentle  rap, 
Most  strange  to  human  ears ! 
May  it  not  be  some  message  sent 

From  those  bright-shining  spheres? 

The  questions  put,  the  answers  come 

As  plain  as  A,  B,  C, 
Which  tell  me  that  departed  friends 

Are  coming  back  to  me. 

No  voice  I  hear,  no  form  behold, 

And  yet  I  feel  impressed 
The  loving  message  surely  comes 
From  loved  ones  gone  to  rest." 


"  I  have  reason  to  think  it  no  delusion  — 

And  therefore  fancy  that  my  child  is  near, 
And  so  I  feel  amid  this  world's  confusion 

The  influence  of  her  sereencr  sphere. 
I  doubt  if  she  is  in  the  church-yard  sleeping, 

And  have  at  last  become  aware 
That  she  eluded  us  while  we  were  weeping, 
And  that  my  child  was  never  buried  there." 

— Anonymwu*. 

45 


IV. 

FIRST  INTERVIEW  WITH  SPIRITS. 

Its  permanent  entrance  into  the  writer's  mental  life. 
— Details  of  the  interview. 

When  I  received  and  read  the  message  that  in  this 
mysterious  way  (as  I  have  stated  in  the  preceding 
chapter)  had  come  from  the  spirit  of  my  little  daugh- 
ter that  I  had  seen  laid  in  the  tomb  a  few  months 
before,  it  surprised  me  very  much,  it  was  certainly  so 
unexpected.  I  knew  I  held  the  secret  as  surely  as 
Junius  did  of  his  "  letters,"  but  here  was  my  mes- 
sage, word  for  word.  My  request  must  have  been 
heard  by  the  invisible  intelligences  in  that  room 
where  I  was  sitting  and  cogitating  alone,  who  must 
have  known  the  location  of  my  wife,  where  she  had 
gone,  for  I  did  not,  so  they  could  not  have  got 
it  from  my  mind,  and  who  there,  at  that  sitting, 
answered  me.  Does  it  not  look  as  if,  all  unseen  by 
me,  I  was  open  and  visible  to  some  of  my  departed 
friends  in  the  spirit  world?  as  if  they,  knowing  my 
wishes,  had  said :  "  Let  us  go  to  that  seance  where 
his  wife,  our  sister  or  mother  had  gone,  and  see  if 
we  cannot  prove  to  him  that  he  is  encompassed 

47 


48  SHADOWS. 

round  about  with  intelligences ; "  or,  as  expressed  in 
the  words  of  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  :  — 

"  It  is  a  beautiful  belief, 

That  ever  round  our  head 
Are  hovering  with  viewless  wiugs 
The  spirits  of  the  dead." 

I  do  not  know  why  I  should  be  so  much  favored 
when  so  many  better  and  wiser  men,  as  hungry  for 
the  truth  as  I  am,  have  been  slighted.  And  then  I 
have  asked  a  great  many  times  since  for  a  similar 
manifestation  for  just  such  a  purpose,  but  the  "vacant 
air  "  has  been  deaf.  Angels'  visits  of  the  kind  most 
wanted  are,  indeed,  few  and  far  between;  perhaps  I 
have  had  my  share  of  attention.  Here  is  the  fact 
once  anyway ;  perhaps  that  was  a  compensation  for 
other  deficiencies,  but  that  is  not  the  point  to  be 
treated  now. 

I  have  had  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  experience  in 
spiritual  matters.  A  large  percentage  of  it  is  of  no 
account.  The  identification  of  a  spirit  is  a  very 
difficult  thing  to  do.  I  have  had  hundreds  of  proofs 
of  spirits  communicating  with  me  to  one  of  identifi- 
cation. I  think  I  could  discount  seventy-five  per  cent 
of  my  experiences  in  this  line  of  thought,  and  the 
substance  of  the  whole  might  be  included  in  the 
remaining  one-quarter,  or  twenty-five  per  cent.  Some 
may  think  I  have  wasted  a  great  deal  of  time  in  wash- 
ing, so  to  speak,  in  this  lean  gulch,  and  the  amount  of 
gold  gathered  has  been  small  for  the  time  and  labor 
spent ;  but  what  I  have  got  is  what  I  want,  and  what 


FIRST  INTERVIEW  WITH   SPIRITS.  49 

the  world  wants  today,  more  than  anything  else,  and 
is  not  to  be  found  outside  of  "these  diggings." 
Where  in  the  whole  world  of  thought  can  one  find 
such  a  nugget  of  value  as  the  message  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  which  I  have  spoken  in  the  last  chap- 
ter. If  it  had  never  been  duplicated  (and  it  never 
has  exactly,  and  seldom  anything  near  it)  it  would, 
as  I  have  said,  have  settled  the  matter  in  my  own 
mind.  I  feel  thankful  for  succeeding  so  well  the  first 
time,  for  it  has  encouraged  me  in  years  of  lean  perse- 
verance, so  that  I  never  was  discouraged,  even  if  not 
always  satisfied ;  but  all  along  the  years  of  my  expe- 
rience in  these  matters  have  I  found  (though  some- 
times it  may  have  been  at  long  intervals)  nuggets  of 
value  that  are  evidences  of  the  truth  for  which  I  was 
seeking. 

When  this  message  from  Hattie  came  to  me,  I 
went  at  once  to  see  this  modern  woman  of  Endor,  to 
see  if  she  could  raise  any  of  my  Samuels.  I  went 
into  her  parlor  a  stranger  both  to  her  and  to  the  sub- 
ject. She  was  sitting  on  a  sofa  in  her  modestly-fur- 
nished room ;  near  the  center  of  it  was  a  round, 
mahogany  table.  I  hardly  knew  what  to  say,  or 
what  to  do.  It  was  new  business  to  me.  The  lady 
helped  me  by  saying :  "Do  you  want  to  talk  with  the 
spirits  ?  "  I  said  :  "  Most  certainly."  She  remarked, 
in  a  courteous  manner,  that  there  were  a  great  many 
here,  or  that  I  had  brought  a  great  many  with  me. 
She  said  :  "  Take  a  seat  at  the  table,"  pointing  to  the 
one  I  had  noticed,  which  was  about  three  feet  from 
her.  I  did  so,  moving  it  a  little  so  as  to  detect  any 


50  SHADOWS. 

deceptive  mechanism,  for  I  was  of  a  suspicious 
nature,  at  least  in  a  matter  of  this  kind.  She,  notic- 
ing it,  said :  "  That 's  right ;  put  the  table  anywhere 
you  please."  Her  manners  pleased  me ;  she  seemed 
honest ;  I  was  satisfied,  and  sat  down  to  it,  my  hands 
resting  on  it. 

It  seems  now  that  I  ought  to  narrate,  in  tolerable 
detail,  the  circumstances  of  this  my  first  interview 
with  the  spirits  of  the  other  world ;  but  it  seems  to 
me  also  that  they  ought  to  have  been  on  some  ele- 
vated matters,  and  not  at  all  common-place,  and 
which  seem  almost,  when  dealing  with  the  dead,  or 
rather  "  departed,"  trilling.  The  query  arises  in  my 
mind  now  whether  I  had  not  better  compose  a-presen- 
tation  analogously  true,  but  one  more  in  conformity 
with  one's  expectation  from  such  a  supposed  source, 
the  heavenly  world.  I  think  this  would  be  the  way 
usually  such  a  matter  would  be  given  to  the  public, 
and  not  draw  out  of  obscurity  the  domestic  social 
life  and  names  of  quiet,  unknown  people.  Yet,  if  a 
person  that  I  respected,  and  was  worth  listening  to, 
was  talking  to  me,  I  would  want  the  simple  facts,  and 
when  given,  as  they  have  been  colloqually  often  by 
me,  they  fiave  always  been  impressively  interesting, 
and  as  I  am  with  sincerity,  and  also  simplicity,  now 
talking  with  the  reader,  I  think  the  literal  state- 
ment, with  this  apology,  will  be  the  best  one.  My 
hesitancy  is  owing  in  a  measure  from  feeling,  or  did 
feel  at  the  time,  and  as  others  do  at  that  stage  of 
their  belief,  that  the  spirit  world  was  a  sanctified 
and  holy  place,  and  that  one  must  feel  serious  or 


FIRST   INTERVIEW  WITH   SPIRITS.  51 

religious  when  dealing  witli  it.  There  was  nothing 
serious  or  religious  in  the  pabulum  that  then  came 
to  me  from  that  world  of  light.  Yet  there  was  a 
charming  and  complicated  truthfulness  in  it,  and 
that,  after  all,  is  the  main  thing.  Some  one  has  said 
the  laws  of  crystalizatiou,  manifested  in  the  freezing 
of  ditch  water,  are  as  interesting  a  study  as  they  are 
in  the  crystalization  of  the  diamond ;  so  I  trust  in 
this  trifle  that  I  propose  to  relate,,  as  the  illustrative 
point, —  the  underlying  laws, —  will  make  my  simple 
water  diamondish  in  character. 

I  came  to  this  medium's  house  under  the  assumed 
name  of  Johnson,  and,  hearing  the  raps,  was  told 
they  were  the  spirits,  and  that  I  could  ask  them  any 
questions.  I  began  by  asking  the  invisible  if  they 
knew  me,  and  the  reply  being  '.'Yes,"  I  said  :  "What 
is  my  name?"  and  the  answer  was,  "John  Wether- 
bee."  I  was  both  surprised  and  interested,  for,  as  I 
have  said,  I  was  entirely  unknown  to  the  medium, 
and  though  she  sat  very  near  the  table,  I  could  see 
she  did  not  touch  it,  and  if  she  had,  under  all  the 
circumstances,  it  would  have  made  no  difference. 
I  then  asked :  "  Will  you  tell  me  who  'you  are  ?  " 
And  the  raps  spelled  the  name  of  "  Susan  Gibson." 

I  was  expecting  it  would  have  been  Adeline,  Hattie, 
or  some  other  near  spirit,  and  I  did  not  know  any 
Susan  Gibson ;  and  hoping  to  bring  her  to  mind, 
among  other  questions,  I  said  :  "Where  did  you  die?" 
The  reply  was :  "  Providence."  That  fact  did  not 
help  any,  but  was  interesting,  as  I  had  relatives  in 
that  city,  and  had  visited  it  a  great  deal.  I  then 


52  SHADOWS. 

asked :  "When  did  you  die  ?  "  And  the  reply  was  : 
"About  nine  years  ago."  This  was  interesting,  for 
ray  sister  was  living  there ;  had  been  married  a  year 
or  more  before  that  time.  My  unmarried  sister  was 
a  guest  of  hers  much  of  the  time,  and  for  the  year  or 
two  prior  to  the  nine  years  mentioned  by  the  spirit, 
I  was  there  near  half  of  my  time,  and  so  I  concluded 
that  Susan  Gibson  might  have  been  some  person  that 
I  had  met  there  that  I  had  forgotten,  though  it  seems 
she  had  not  forgotten  me.  I  then  asked  the  spirit : 
"  Do  you  know  my  sister  ?  "  The  reply  was :  "  Yes." 
"What  is  her  name?"  And  the  letters,  in  reply, 
rapped  out  were,  ELI.  Noticing  them  thus,  I 
thought  to  myself  she  is  mistaken ;  it  is  going  to  be 
Eliza  or  Elizabeth,  and  I  have  no  sister  by  that 
name.  I  said  nothing,  and  the  next  letter  was  an  O, 
then  a  T,  and  the  rapping  stopped.  At  first,  I  did 
not  recognize  it,  but  as  quickly  as  I  saw  it  read, 
Eliot,  then  I  saw  it  was  my  sister's  name,  Elliott. 
The  spirit  had  spelled  the  name  in  the  usual  wa}% 
but  our  Elliotts  spelled  it  with  two  Z's  and  two  t's, 
and  in  the  diminished  form  I  at  first  did  not  recog- 
nize it.  It  was  far  better  in  the  way  manifested,  for 
it  showed  the  spirit  was  not  getting  it  from  my  mind. 
I  then  saw  that  that  was  the  name  of  my  living  sister; 
but  I  wanted  the  name  of  my  dead  one,  or  who  was 
'now  a  spirit,  and  the  reply  was:  "Adeline,"  which 
was  correct. 

Speaking  of  this  to  my  sister  in  Providence,  I 
found  her  no  better  off  than  I  was ;  she  could  remem- 
ber no  Susan  Gibson  among  her  acquaintances,  but 


FIRST  INTERVIEW  WITH   SPIRITS.  53 

in  the  early  part  of  her  married  life  —  say  ten  or 
eleven  years  before  this  interview — she  had  a  domes- 
tic living  with  her  by  the  name  of  Susan ;  it  might 
have  been  Susan  Gibson,  but  she  did  not  know 
whether  it  was  or  not.  As  the  communication  was 
so  correct,  even  free  from  any  mind-reading,  it  seems 
to  me  reasonable  to  suppose  it  was  the  Susan  that 
was  the  domestic.  Imagine  the  situation,  and  see 
how  natural  it  is,  on  that  basis.  She  was  the  family- 
servant  of  Mrs.  Elliott,  my  sister  visiting  her,  whose 
name  was  Adeline,  and  I  was  often  there.  I  asked 
her,  as  a  spirit,  for  my  sister's  name.  I  was  thinking 
of  Adeline,  who  was  a  spirit,  but  the  spirit  of  the 
domestic  said  "Eliot,"  speaking  of  her  mistress  by 
the  name  she  was  known,  and  then  of  Adeline,  as 
she  would  have  been  known  in  that  household.  In 
the  long,  tedious  way  of  getting  messages,  with  the 
aid  of  an  alphabet,  one  cannot  use  superfluous  words 
uny  more  than  one  does  in  a  telegram.  If  Susan  had 
been  giving  those  messages  in  her  living  state,  or  a 
free  translation  of  them  into  a  polite  vernacular, 
they  would  read:  "Your  living  sister's  name  is  Mrs. 
Eliot,  and  the  sister  who  is  now  a  spirit  her  name  is 
Miss  Adeline."  We  must  understand  the  superflu- 
ous appellations  Mrs.  and  Miss  are  understood,  and 
not  necessarily  expressed  in  spiritual  as  well  as  in 
telegraphic  messages. 


"  It  is  the  hour  of  prayer.  All  day  the  din  of  active  life  over- 
whelms, and  the  latent  soul  speaks  not.  Thankful  are  we  for 
the  return  of  evening,  bringing  us  back  to  serious  thought, 
when  hearts  speak  and  voices  oft  are  silent,  —  vain  wanderings 
o'er  a  sea  of  thoughts  we  cannot  fathom.  It  is  the  hour  when 
children  talk  with  angels.  It  is  the  hour  we  feel  our  immortal- 
ity. It  is  the  hour  when  old  familiar  faces  look  at  us  from  the 
dark  corners  of  the  room.  Old  portraits  on  the  wall  attract 
expression,  and  the  recognitions  make  us  feel  their  living  pres- 
ence. Can  the  witching  hour  of  twilight  make  vivid  the  shadows 
of  loved  faces  who  dwell  beyond  the  vale,  —  whose  silent  voices 
ignite  thought,  whose  footsteps  leave  no  track  behind?" 


55 


V. 


LIFE  S   AFTERNOON. 

The  " Dawning  Light"  seems  to  be  a  boon  or  consola- 
tion to  advancing  years. — An  extension-claim. 

"The  day  is  past  and  gone, 

The  evening  shades  appear; 
Oh,  may  we  all  remember  well 
The  night  of  death  draws  near." 

There  is  a  religious  association  that  comes  up  in 
the  mind  with  this  oft-repeated  and  oft-sung  hymn 
to  which  no  reference  is  now  intended.  Take  it  as 
it  reads, — not  its  associations,  or  what  in  a  pious  direc- 
tion it  may  suggest,  —  how  differently  the  thought 
strikes  the  mind  of  a  youth  of  twenty  from  what  it 
does  the  adult,  or  mature  one  of  sixty ! 

The  grim  messenger,  as  death  is  sometimes  called, 
is  near  youth,  of  course ;  but  when  one  is  thus  early 
called,  it  seems  somewhat  out  of  order,— a  mistake 
somewhere,  a  payment  anticipated,  one  made  before 
it  was  due.  When  the  noon  of  a  man's  life  is  past, 
or  if  it  is  four  o'clock  or  five  or  six  in  the  afternoon 
of  his  life,  the  sun  nearing  his  western  horizon, —  the 
"Night  of  Death," — then  is  a  vivid  point;  it  seems 

57 


58  SHADOWS. 

near  or  nearer  then,  mathematically,  no  matter  how 
much  of  time  there  still  may  be  left  for  him. 

It  is  wisely  provided  that  youth  and  young  man- 
hood should  be  hopeful,  and  even  thoughtless,  and 
death  but  lightly  considered.  With  sixty  years  of 
probable  life  before  a  man,  or  only  six,  the  future 
prospect  differs.  When  one  reads  a  thoughtful  verse 
like  this,  which  is  so  suggestive  and  truthful  also, — 

"  The  end  of  life  comes  nearer, 

Every  year ; 
The  friends  left  become  dearer, 

Every  year ; 

And  the  goal  of  all  that 's  mortal, 
Opens  wider  still  its  portal 
To  the  land  of  the  immortal, 

Every  year," 

it  will  strike  the  mind  of  a  man  who,  on  the  princi- 
ple of  life  assurance  or  of  annuities,  has  fifty  years 
before  him  very  differently  from  one  whose  chances 
are  but  for  five,  or  ten,  on  the  statistical  ground.  It 
is  well  that  it  is  so,  for  the  youth  has  the  world's 
affairs  on  his  hands,  the  old  man  more  naturally 
begins  to  set  his  house  in  order. 

Modern  Spiritualism  then  seems  to  come  as  a  boon 
or  a  comfort  to  old  people.  It  is  a  beautiful  and 
inspiring  thought  to  the  young  also,  especially  if  the 
pale  angel  is  beckoning  to  one.  These  "anticipated 
payments  "  are  very  common.  There  comes  a  time 
also  when  the  end  of  life  is  falling  due,  in  the  natu- 
ral order  of  things.  Three-score-and-ten  is  an  indefi- 
nite point  in  one's  lifet-ime,  though  definitely  ex- 


LIFE'S  AFTERNOON.  59 

pressed,  but  is  reached  by  all,  like  a  promissory  note 
falling  due.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time. 

How  cheering,  then,  the  thought  that  the  little 
span  of  life  that  a  man  sees  before  him  when  he 
reaches  nearer  and  nearer  this  indefinite  but  certain 
point  is  extended  into  a  perpetuity — a  continuous 
life  —  under  new  conditions.  That  is  what  modern 
Spiritualism  teaches,  and,  if  based  on  truth,  what  an 
acquisition  it  is ! 

In  the  light  of  some  facts,  which  will  appear  in  the 
course  of  these  chapters,  how  can  it  be  anything  else 
but  what  it  claims  to  be  ?  This  extension  of  life  is 
not  exactly  an  ethereal  one,  but  one  as  real  to  the 
senses  as  this  one  is  that  we  are  now  living.  It 
seems  to  be  a  very  human  life,  if  not  a  mortal  one. 
Our  aims  and  tastes,  and  sometimes  our  misfortunes 
here,  are  continued  there  on,  perhaps,  a  higher  plane 
or  outlook,  the  misfortunes  here  being  the  beginnings 
of  what  may  be  successes  there,  and  possibly  view- 
ing them  retrospectively  may  be  the  most  lustrous 
ones  of  our  human  experience.  To  be  sure  there  is 
no  ticketing  our  baggage  through  the  gates  of  death 
to  the  summer  land.  All  our  wealth  is  left  on  this 
side  of  the  grave, —  useful  here,  of  no  account  there. 

What  empty  bags  some  of  our  rich  people  —  even 
millionaires  —  must  be  when  discretely  separated 
from  their  possessions!  How  important  for.  such, 
and  all,  to  keep  a  sinking-fund  of  enduring  posses- 
sions as  this  life's  years  glide  by  that  will  be  income- 
producing  (using  our  vernacular)  when  this  life's 
h'ti'ul  fever  is  over!  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to 


60  SHADOWS. 

quote  a  communication  that. this  latter  remark  sug- 
gests that  came  to  me  once  through  the  medium 
Mary  Hardy,  she  being  unconscious, — in  a  trance. 

This  was  from  an  aged,  well-known  citizen,  an 
intimate  friend  of  mine,  who  had  departed  from  this 
life  some  years  before.  Besides  the  communication, 
I  could  give  some  circumstances  that  insure  its  gen- 
uineness, but  I  must  refrain  from  doing  so  here  for 
the  sake  of  brevity.  Please  take  my  word  for  it,  and 
read  the  characteristic  message.  I  do  not  quote  it  as 
'evidence  of  spirit  existence,  though  I  receive  it  as 
such  myself,  from  the  circumstances  referred  to 
attending  it,  but  which  would  not  be  of  any  interest 
to  the  general  reader.  The  communication  itself 
will  be  illustrative  of  the  idea  above  suggested,  of 
keeping  a  "sinking  fund  "  that  will  be,  in  a  spiritual 
sense,  income-producing  "  in  the  sweet  by-and-bye." 

"  Summer-Land  securities,  like  the  securities  current  on 
'change,  do  not  come  by  the  asking,  or  by  inheritance,  they 
all  have  to  be  earned.  A  man  may  be  poor  in  one  and  may 
be  rich  in  the  other.  The  former  boil  no  pots,  and  in  the 
affairs  of  life,  or  the  settlement  of  estates,  are  not  counted 
as  assets.  Successful  business  men  often  make  a  poor  show- 
ing when  they  close  in  on  the  mortal  and  open  out  into  the 
immortal  state. 

"There  is  hut  one  way  by  which  the  gilt-edged  securities 
of  earth  can  be  converted  into  the  gilt-edged  of  the  Summer 
Land,  and  that  is  by  unselfish  uses.  Both  kinds  are  in  your 
market  now ;  the  enduring  find  comparatively  but  few  tak- 
ers, the  passing  are  in  active  demand.  If  I  had  known  ten 
years  ago  what  I  know  now,  I  would  have  left  less  money 


LIFE'S  AFTERNOON.  61 

to  my  heirs,  but  I  would  have  been  more  affluent  now.  I 
did,  you  know,  an  unselfish  act  of  considerable  magnitude, 
and  worried  some  about  it.  I  was  glad  before  I  died  that  I 
did  it,  and  I  am  gladder  still  now.  It  has  proved  to  be  the 
best  investment  I  have  now  in  this  Summer  Land,  and  it 
makes  me  quite  comfortable." 

The  principal  feature  in  the  teachings  of  modern 
Spiritualism  is  that  the  grave  is  not  merely  a  hole  in 
the  ground,  or  blind  alley,  but,  figuratively  speaking, 
is  a  thoroughfare  opening  out  into  eternal  light. 
Our  night  of  death  comes,  but  our  life  is  not  ended. 
Our  day  may  have  ended  and  its  work  done,  but  we 
awake  and  find  it  the  morning  of  a  new  day. 

I  do  not  know  how  it  is  Avith  other  people,  but  to 
me  this  extension  of  our  life  beyond  the  valley  and 
the  shadow  of  death,  and  free  from  its  anxieties  and 
troubles,  and  yet  retaining  our  identities,  or  consci- 
ous ego, —  our  personality, —  with  a  busy  and  pro- 
gressive future,  is  a  joyous  vision,  an  inheritance  of 
priceless  value. 

It  changes  the-  whole  aspect  of  human  life,  and 
certainly  adds  sunshine  to  the  remainder  of  this, 
which  cannot  now  be,  to  this  writer,  but  a  decade  or 
two  at  most.  Though,  as  I  have  said,  this  sometimes 
called  the  "Dawning  Light"  is  the  bright  gift  to 
old  age,  and  it  is  the  bright  gift  to  all  who  are 
open-eyed  to  it,  and  to  all,  anyway,  at  last,  for  "  old 
age  "  is  the  possibility  of  all ;  so,  in  time,  these  sug- 
gestions will  be  in  order  for  all  those  who  have  been 
luckv  enough  to  have  been  undrafted  from  their  life 


G2  SHADOWS. 

in  the  former,  until  (using  a  mercantile  phrase)  they 
have  become  due. 

I  have  a  friend,  whose  ancestors  lived  in  this  old 
Bay  State ;  but,  in  the  long  ago,  his  parents  emigrated 
to  the  far  west,  and  grew  up  with  it  in  what  is  now 
the  State  of  Iowa.  While  writing  this  chapter,  I 
have  received  a  letter  from  him.  Its  contents  seem 
almost  a  contribution  to,  or  corroboration  of,  what  I 
have  been  saying.  His  communication  embraced  the 
celebration  of  the  ninety-first  anniversary  of  the  birth- 
day of  his  mother, —  in  good  health,  for  her  years, 
and  mind  unclouded. 

I  have  always  been  pleased  with  the  tender  and 
rational  tones  of  his  poetic  effusions  on  previous 
similar  and  other  festive  occasions  which  he  has  gen- 
erally sent  to  me,  as  he  has  this  one.  At  this  time 
were  gathered  children,  grandchildren,  and  relatives 
and  friends;  and  he  among  them  gave  and  read  a 
poetic  tribute,  which  the  old  lady  and  all  enjoyed  for 
its  beauty  and  fitness.  He,  like  this  writer,  is  getting 
to  be  somewhat  venerable,  but  our  souls  are  young, 
as,  on  my  theory,  all  Spiritualists'  souls  ought  to  be ; 
and  the  fact  of  being  believers  in  our  hopeful  philos- 
ophy takes  these  tributes  out  of  mere  poetry  and  sen- 
timent, and  gives  the  luster  of  reality,  that  no  one 
who  does  not  only  feel,  but  knows,  that  this  life  is 
but  the  vestibule  of  the  one  that  follows,  can  realize 
these  mortal  sunsets  so  radient  with  blue,  green,  and 
gold,  bespeaking  a  pleasant  day  on  the  "  tomorrow 
of  death, '?  as  a  true  Spiritualist  can. 

Feeling  now  in  this  special  case  more  than  it  may 


LIFE'S  AFTERNOON.  63 

be  prudent  to  say  in  a  book,  I  will  print  his  verses 
for  the  sake  of  their  preservation,  and  as  a  reminder 
to  this  writer  and  others  of  much  that  is  suggested 
but  not  expressed  here. 

ANNIVERSARIUS.* 

"October,  seventeen  ninety- three, 
Shall  ever  to  us  children  be 
A  month  and  year  of  jubilee; 
For  then  was  born  to  life  and  light 
The  being  of  our  heart's  delight, 
Who  modestly  through  life's  long  fight, 
Hath  honor's  shield  kept  clean  and  bright, — 
Our  mother. 

Who  in  our  country's  early  dawn 
Hath  listened,  rapt,  to  tales  and  song 
Of  Washington  and  Jefferson, 
Amidst  New  England's  Christian  spires, 
Of  lofty  deeds  through  battle's  fires 
That  Freedom  won  for  glorious  sires, — 
Our  mother. 

Who  in  young  womanhood's  first  grace 
Hath  joined  her  brothers  in  the  race 
Through  forests  dark  new  paths  to  trace; 
And  plant  new  States  on  fields  afar, 
Where  brightly  shone  that  '  Western  Star ' 
Which  hostile  foes  should  ne'er  debar, — 
Our  mother. 

Full  many  a  task  is  bravely  done, 
Full  many  a  trial  uobly  won, 
Through  her  ripe  years  of  ninety-one. 
May  peace  and  honor  crown  her  days ; 
Let  trust  in  God  her  courage  raise, 
While  all  her  children  join  to  praise, — 

Our  mother." 
*  C.  A.  K.  — Kookuk,  October  28, 1884. 


64  SHADOWS. 

In  the  course  of  this  chapter,  which  seems  to  have 
been  inspired  by  what  might  be  called  the  approach 
of  evening,  one  may  have  noticed  a  thoughtfully- 
expressed  verse  from  an  "  Old  Man's  Story."  I  do 
not  know  who  was  the  author,  but  think  I  will  use 
the  rest  of  it,  it  expresses  so  well  what  I  want  to  say, 
and  better  than  I  can  say  it  in  prose  briefly.  I  do 
not  think  the  author  will  object  to  my  thus  drafting 
it  from  my  scrap-book,  with  the  setting  I  have  thus 
given  to  his  words,  which  are  as  follows :  — 

"  To  the  past  go  more  dead  faces 

Every  year, 
As  the  loved  leave  vacant  places 

Every  year. 

Everywhere  the  sad  eyes  meet  us, 
In  the  evening  dusk  they  greet  us, 
And  to  come  to  them  entreat  us 

Every  year. 

You  are  growing  old,  they  tell  us, 

Every  year; 
You  are  more  alone,  they  tell  us, 

Every  year; 

You  can  win  no  more  affection, 
You  have  only  recollection, 
Deeper  sorrow  and  dejection, 

Every  year. 

Yes,  the  shores  of  life  are  shifting 

Every  year, 
And  we  are  all  seaward  drifting 

Every  year ; 

Old  places  changing,  fret  us, 
The  living  now  forget  us, 
There  are  fewer  to  regret  us 

Every  year. 


LIFE'S  AFTERNOON.  65 

But  the  truer  life  draws  nigher 

Every  year, 
And  its  morning  star  climbs  higher 

Every  year ; 

Earth's  hold  on  us  grows  slighter, 
And  the  heavy  burdens  lighter, 
And  the  dawn  of  the  immortal  brighter, 

Every  year." 


"All  who  appreciate  the  influence  of  high  ideals,  and  an 
exalted  faith  in  immortality  on  individual  and  national  destiny, 
mast  admit  that  the  transit  of  a  pencil,  proved  beyond  a  doubt 
to  be  guided  by  unseen  force  and  intelligence,  is  a  phenomenon 
of  infinitely  more  value  and  concern  to  the  world  today  than 
the  whole  science  of  astronomy." — Epes  Sargent. 

67 


VI. 

INDEPENDENT   SLATE-WRITING. 

An  elaborate  description  of  an  experience  under  the 
most  rigid  conditions. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  satisfying  phases 
of  the  spiritual  phenomena  is  independent  slate-writ- 
ing. It  interested  the  late  Epes  Sargent  more  than  any 
other  phase,  and  so  it  does  me ;  but  I  include  writ- 
ing or  written  messages  made  otherwise  when  I  know 
them  to  be  genuine,  that  is,  from  a  super-mundane 
source.  I  think,  however,  there  are  many  other 
phases  of  the  phenomena  equally  interesting  and 
important.  There  is  something,  nevertheless,  that  is 
very  convincing  in  this  slate-writing  phase,  and  I 
have  had  much  interesting  experience  in  it. 

No  one  is  more  aware  than  I  am  of  its  liability  to 
be  fraudulent,  but  no  amount  of  fraud  lessens  the 
value  of  a  genuine  manifestation.  Liability  of  being 
cheated  should  lead  us  to  be  open-eyed  so  as  to  be 
sure  of  our  facts.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  I  am  sure ; 
and  if  there  are  any  "  bottom  facts  "  in  anything, 
the  facts  that  I  offer  under  this  head,  as  well  as  the 
facts  offered  in  the  other  chapters  of  this  book,  can 
be  depended  upon  as  "  bottom  "  ones. 


70  SHADOWS. 

It  would  require  a  book  by  itself  to  relate  all  my 
experiences  in  this  line  that  are  unmistakable,  but 
that  is  not  now  the  object.  I  will  relate  one  experi- 
ence, and  do  it  somewhat  elaborately,  some  of  the 
outcome  of  it  being  rather  important,  because  it 
extended  some  beyond  my  personal  experience  after- 
wards, even  into  the  public  life  of  Rev.  Joseph  Cook, 
and  local  history. 

I  was  not  particularly  attracted  to  Charles  E.  Wat- 
kins,  but  that,  of  course,  is  a  matter  of  taste.  I  some- 
times think  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  must  have  had 
the  mediumistic  class  in  his  mind  when  he  said: 
"  There  is  a  crack  in  everything  that  God  has  made, 
but  the  light  of  heaven  shines  through  the  crevice.'* 
But  this  class,  so  prominent  in  modern  Spiritualism, 
knows  that  I  appreciate  it,  and  that  I  do  not  make 
this  remark  as  any  reflection,  only  from  my  experi- 
ence. I  am  glad  I  am  not  a  medium,  and  I  dare  say 
they  are  glad  that  they  are  not  this  writer.  But 
what  would  we  do  without  them  ? 

I  said  I  was  not  much  attracted  to  Watkins,  but 
from  my  experience  with  him  under  crucial  test  con- 
ditions, I  think  I  had  been  prejudiced,  so  I  say  this 
to  do  him  justice.  Meeting  him  one  day  in  the 
Banner  of  Light  bookstore,  he  asked  me,  rather  pat- 
ronizingly, why  I  had  not  been  to  see  him  or  his 
manifestations,  and  said  he  would  like  to  have  me 
do  so,  if  I  was  willing.  I  replied  that  I  had  not 
much  leisure  time  for  such  things,  except  for  my  own 
benefit,  and  then  I  wanted  to  have  everything  my 
own  way.  "You  can  have  everything  your  own 


INDEPENDENT   SLATE-WRITING.  71 

way,"  said  he,  "  if  you  will  come."  I  said :  u  If  you 
mean  exactly  that,  Mr.  Watkins,  I  will  come  and 
have  a  sitting  with  you."  lie  replied  that  he  did 
mean  exactly  that,  and  I  fixed  the  next  day  in  the 
afternoon,  at  three  o'clock,  as  the  time  that  I  would 
call  upon  him.  I  hope  the  reader  will  notice  veiy  par- 
ticularly, and  in  detail,  my  method,  and  as  I  intend 
to  be  very  exact,  and  the  result  being  very  import- 
ant, my  statement  will  be  worth  listening  to. 

The  next  day,  on  my  way  to  his  residence,  I 
stopped  at  a  hardware  store  on  Washington  Street, 
and  bought  two  new  slates.  In  size  they  were  about 
twelve  inches  by  eight,  with  the  usual  wooden 
frames.  As  the  storekeeper  had  no  double  slates,  I 
got  him  to  bore  a  hole  through  them  both  on  their 
sides,  through  which  I  run  a  strong  twine,  and  tied 
them  together,  making  them  practically  a  double 
slate,  putting  between  them  a  small  bit  of  slate  pen- 
cil before  tying  them  thus  together.  I  then,  in  that 
form,  knowing  they  were  new  and  clean,  put  them 
into  my  bag,  which,  as  usual,  1  was  carrying,  -and 
continued  my  way  to  Mr.  Watkins's  residence.  I 
found  him  at  home  and  alone  in  his  parlor. 

It  was  one  of  the  long,  warm  days  of  summer,  the 
curtains  were  up,  and  the  bright  afternoon  sun  was 
shining  into  the  room,  so  it  was  very  light,  and  one 
could  read  easily  in  any  part  of  it.  There  were  sofa 
and  chairs  in  the  room,  and  in  the  center  was  a  plain, 
wooden  table,  rectangular  in  shape,  about  four  feet 
long  and  two  wide.  On  the  table,  on  one  side,  were 
two  slates. 


72  SHADOWS. 

I  kept  my  satchel  in  my  hands,  and  took  my  seat 
at  the  table  as  he  suggested,  Mr.  Watkins  taking  his 
seat  at  the  table,  and  was  my  vis-a-vis.  Being  seated, 
he  said :  "Wetherbee,  now  take  the  slates  there " 
[pointing  to  those  on  the  table]  "to  the  sink,  and 
see  that  they  are  perfectly  clean.  I  do  n't  want  to 
touch  them,"  said  he,  "  for  the  better  test ;  the  mani- 
festation will  be  to  you,  if  we  get  any."  "  That  is 
very  fair,"  said  I,  "  but  I  have  brought  my  own 
slates"  [taking  them  out  of  my  bag],  "and  I  guess 
I  will  use  them."  "That  is  right,"  said  he;  "I  am 
glad  you  did  so." 

The  slates  I  took  out  of  the  bag  just  as  they  were 
tied  together  in  the  store ;  they  had  never  been  out 
of  my  hands  from  the  time  I  had  tied  them  and  put 
them  in  the  bag;  then  laid  them  before  me  Hat  on 
the  table,  and  laid  my  two  hands  flat  on  them  just  as 
they  laid  tied  together,  one  then,  of  course,  on  the 
top  of  the  other.  The  medium,  who  was  sitting,  as 
I  have  said,  opposite  to  me,  in  a  short  time  placed 
his  two  hands  on  the  top  of  mine,—  mine  being 
unmoved  and  flat  on  the  slates  as  I  had  first  put  them, 
and  the  tied  slates  one  on  top  of  the  other  flat  on  the 
table  under  my  two  hands.  I  hardly  think  his  hands 
touched  the  slates ;  possibly  his  fingers  did  slightly ; 
it  would  make  no  difference  if  they  had,  for  the 
slates  nor  my  hands  were  not  moved  from  where  I 
first  put  them. 

Nothing  occurred  for  a  few  minutes,  when  he  said 
it  will  probably  take  longer  for  the  spirits  with  new 
unniagnetized  slates  than  it  would  if  I  had  used  his. 


INDEPENDENT   SLATE-WRITING.  73 

I  told  him  I  was  in  no  hurry ;  that  there  would  be  a 
great  satisfaction  to  me  if  the  spirits  would  write  on 
these  new  ones  of  mine,  not  but  what  it  would  be  all 
right  for  them  to  use  his,  but  if  I  afterwards  should 
have  occasion  to  speak  of  it,  it  would  not  carry  the 
same  conviction  as  it  would  if  done  on  these  new 
ones,  and  which  had  pever  been  apart  since  I  tied 
them  together  in  the  store.  I  must  confess  I  had 
taken  such  a  rigid  course  to  prevent  any  fraud  or 
imposition  that  I  hardly  expected  any  writing  would 
be  produced.  I  only  hoped  without  much  faith. 

In  a  little  while,  to  my  great  surprise,  I  heard  a 
faint  but  perceptible  scratching  of,  probably,  the  bit 
of  pencil  between  the  two  slates  under  my  hands. 
The  medium's  hands  were  still  on  mine,  and  neither 
his  hands  nor  mine  had  been  moved  in  the  least,  and 
my  eyes  had  not  once  been  off  of  them.  If  nothing 
had  been  written,  it  would  have  been  an  external 
sensuous  or  objective  phenomenon,  for  we  both  had 
had  auricular  evidence  that  there  was  some  sort  of 
movement  without  material  contact  or  connection 
with  the  operation. 

Soon  the  scratching  ended  with  three  pretty  dis- 
tinct taps,  seemingly  by  the  pencil  inside,  and  the 
medium  said :  "  That  means  they  are  done."  Remov- 
ing his  hands  from  the  top  of  mine,  I  then  lifted  the 
slates,  untied  one  of  the  strings,  and  opened  them 
before  me  like  a  double  slate,  and  found  on  one  of 
the  inside  faces,  in  a  plain,  easy,  oblique,  running- 
hand,  a  message  from  a  well-known  departed  friend. 

It  was  the  name  of  my  fajther-in-law.     The  face  of 


74  SHADOWS. 

the  other  slate  was  untouched  and  clean.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  message  that  was  written  by,  what  it 
would  seem,  invisible  hands :  — 

Summer  Land  . 
"  My  dear  son  , 

I  do  thank  God  that  I  can  give  you  this  test  of  spirit 
power  over  matter.  I  trust  you  will  ever  strive  and  search 
after  truth  as  you  are  now  I  am  truly  your  father  in  law 

William  Beals." 

Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  to  have  left  the 
name  in  blank,  but  I  am  aiming  to  be  exact,  and  so 
will  be  thus  outspoken. 

I  remarked  when  I  read  this  message,  purporting 
to  come  from  my  venerable  friend,  that  it  was  quite 
remarkable  and  very  satisfactory,  for  it  was  written 
without  mortal  contact  or  mechanical  action, —  that 
is,  the  bit  of  pencil  was  used,  it  would  seem,  by  an 
invisible  intelligence,  hence  must  have  been  done  by 
a  spirit,  for  no  human  being  in  the  form  did  it.  The 
reader  can  see  that,  if  I  have  stated  the  matter 
clearly. 

"Do  you  know  the  person?"  said  the  medium, 
after  I  had  read  it.  "Oh,  yes,  perfectly  well,"  said 
I,  "but  it  does  not  sound  like  him,  nor-  is  it  his  hand- 
writing. He  wrote  rather  a  bold,  perpendicular  hand, 
—  but  that  is  of  no  consequence.  The  fact  is  just 
the  same,  for  it  is  the  act  of  an  invisible  intelligence, 
and  no  matter  who  wrote  it,  I  am  sure  you  did  not, 
and  no  other  human  being,  for  we  are  alone,  and  if  a 
spirit  wrote  it,  whether  it  was  my  friend  or  some 


INDEPENDENT    SLATE-WRITING.  75 

alias  using  his  name,  it  settles  the  question  of  a 
future  life." 

I  do  not  think  the  medium  knew  my  connection 
with  the  name  of  that  spirit,  or  any  of  my  social  sur- 
roundings, and  if  he  had  it  would  not,  under  such 
rigid  circumstances,  have  made  any  difference.  He 
said,  in  reply  to  my  remark  or  criticism :  "  Let  us 
try  again." 

I  closed  the  slates,  and  put  my  hands  flat  on  them 
as  before,  and  he  put  his  hands  on  mine.  The 
scratching  noise  began  this  time  at  once,  and  stopped 
as  before,  with  three  signifying  taps,  as  if  with  the 
pencil.  On  opening  them,  the  other  face  on  which 
nothing  had  been  written  the  first  time,  was  the  fol- 
lowing message.  I  have  them  both  now,  and  the 
slates :  — 

"  My  Dear  Son.  I  am  going  to  try  &  write  more  like 
the  way  I  used  to,  but  1  may  not.  Still  I  want  to  say  tell 
your  wife  I  still  live 

William  Beals  " 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  invisible  actor  in  this 
matter  heard  my  remark  about  his  hand-writing,  for 
he,  she,  or  it  acted  on  the  hint.  I  do  not  feel  as 
if  this  was  a  message  from  Mr.  Beals.  There  were 
more  important  things  to  have  said  if  it  were  he. 
Still  it  may  have  been ;  but  I  am  sure  as  I  am  of 
anything  —  in  fact,  I  positively  know  —  that  it  was 
not  the  act  of  anyone  in  the  form.  The  proof  of 
identity  in  the  manifestations  generally  is  a  far  more 
difficult  thing  than  is  the  proof  of  its  being  a  spirit. 


76  SHADOWS. 

I  will  add,  in  this  connection,  that  at  the  bottom 
of  the  slate  that  had  the  second  message  written  on 
it  was  the  following  message,  which  was  not  noticed 
at  first,  as  it  was  written  very  fine,  but  still  very  dis- 
tinctly. It  purports  to  be  from  my  little  daughter :  — 

"  Dear  father  I  will  now  write  when  you  are  not  expect- 
ing me 

Your  own  Hattie  " 

Not  wishing  to  lose  these  slates  with  this  experi- 
ence of  perfectly  independent  slate-writing  on  them, 
I  tied  them  up  again  and  put  them  back  into  my  bag 
for  safe-keeping,  and  then  gave  my  attention  to  further 
manifestations,  using  the  medium's  slates,  as  pro- 
posed at  first.  I  will  mention  but  one  experiment, 
which  was  as  follows :  — 

I  took  the  two  slates  that  were  on  the  table  and 
washed  them,  though  they  were  clean  before,  and 
was  going  to  pass  them  to  him,  and  was  about  doing 
so,  holding  them  both  together  in  my  right  hand. 
"No,"  said  he,  "I  do  not  want  to  touch  them.  Sit 
down,  as  before,  and  hold  them  together  at  arm's 
length  as  far  from  roe  as  you  can."  I  did  so  with  my 
right  hand,  he  sitting  vis-a-vis,  holding  my  left  hand 
with  both  of  his. 

There  was,  as  before,  a  bit  of  pencil  between  the 
two  slates,  and,  as  I  held  them,  they  must  have  been 
four  or  five  feet  from  the  medium.  The  writing  was 
at  once  heard,  and  there  was  quite  a  pressure  on  the 
extended  slates,  so  that  it  was  some  exertion  to  hold 
them  out.  When  the  writing  had  stopped,  I  laid  them 


INDEPENDENT   SLATE-WRITING.  77 

open  before  me,  the  medium,  of  course,  never  having 
touched  them,  and  there  was  a  letter  on  each  from 
two  of  my  well-remembered  departed  friends. 

They  were  written,  it  would  seem,  simultaneously, 
or  in  the  one  operation,  in  entirely  different  hands 
and  subjects.  One,  of  course,  must  have  been  writ- 
ten bottom  upwards, —  or  rather,  I  should  say,  the 
whole  operation  seems  to  be  a  psychical  one,  or  by 
will-power,  rather  than  by  a  mechanical  one.  Here 
are  the  two  messages,  which  I  copied  at  the  time :  — 

"  How  glad  I  am  to  come          "  My  son    It  is  very  pleas- 

to  you  Weatherbee  and  tell  ant  to  prove  to  you  in  this 

you  in  this  way  that  I  am  as  way  that  we  can  communicate 

alive  as  ever  I  was  and  am  with  our  friends 
often  with  you  and  am  trying  W™  Beals  " 

to  be  of  service  to  you 

Ralph  Huntington  " 

There  lacks  in  these  messages  the  internal  evidence 
of  their  coming  from  the  parties  who  have  signed 
them.  For  instance :  my  old  and  intimate  friend 
Ralph  Huntington,  who  also  knew  my  father  before 
me,  would  never  have  spelled  my  name  "Weather- 
bee."  Still,  we  would  not  criticise,  for  we  do  not 
know  the  difficulties  or  disabilities  in  connection 
with  these  occult  operations. 

On  reaching  my  home  after  this  very  satisfactory 
seance,  I  saw  my  friend  and  neighbor  Epes  Sargent 
coming  down  my  street,  and  I  waited  at  the  garden 
gate  for  him,  and  we  went  into  the  house  together, 
I  having  something  important  to  tell  him.  I  showed 


78  SHADOWS. 

him  the  slates  that  were  in  my  bag,  and  gave  him  an 
account  of  all  the  circumstances.  He  was  much 
pleased,  and  was  very  much  interested  in  my  account 
of  the  experience. 

lie  went  in  a  day  or  two  after  that,  and  had  a 
sitting  himself,  which,  in  the  end,  led  to  an  important 
circumstance,  to  be  mentioned  in  another  chapter. 

Mr.  Sargent  was  entirely  unknown  to  Mr.  Wat- 
kins.  When  he  called  to  have  a  seance,  he  was  not 
very  hospitably  received,  or,  as  he  would  have  been, 
had  he  announced  his  name.  It  was  better,  how- 
ever, as  it  was.  Mr.  Watkins,  it  seemed,  was  not  in 
a  good  frame  of  mind,  and  when  this  stranger,  as  it 
seemed,  called  to  have  or  see  some  of  his  manifesta- 
tions, the  medium  was  disinclined ;  said  he  did  not 
feel  very  well ;  did  not  think  he  could  do  anything, 
and  he  had  better  call  some  other  time. 

Mr.  Sargent  said  he  lived  some  ways  off,  and  would 
like  very  much  to  have  him  sit  then,  as  he  did  not 
know  when  he  could  come  again.  "Well,"  says  Mr. 
Watkins,  inviting  him  up  stairs,  "we  will  try  and  see 
what  we  can  do,  but  I  guess  you  will  be  disappointed." 
Mr.  Sargent  did  not  bring  any  slates,  so  he  sat  at  the 
table  as  I  did,  and  after  washing  the  slates,  as  he  was 
told  to,  which  then  lay  on  the  table,  he  laid  one  of 
them  before  him,  with  his  two  hands  upon  it.  After 
a  little  while  the  bit  of  pencil  which  had  been  placed 
under  it  began  its  perceptible  scratching,  when  sud- 
denly the  medium  jumped  up  and  said:  "Why,  you 
are  Epes  Sargent ; "  and  the  slate  was  then  turned 
over,  at  the  same  time  showing  a  message  addressed 


INDEPENDENT   SLATE-WRITING.  79 

to  Epes  Sargent,  with  his  father's  name  at  the  end 
of  it. 

Now,  notice  this :  it  seems  that  this  mysterious 
work  is  somehow  connected  with  the  mind  of  the 
medium,  for  he  had  become  cognizant  that  his  vis-a- 
vis was  Epes  Sargent  by  knowing  what  the  spirit  had 
written  on  the  slate  before  it  had  been  turned  over 
for  the  message  to  be  read. 

It  would  seem  by  this  act  that  the  message  came 
into  the  medium's  mind  as  it  was  being  written  on 
the  slate,  and  before  it  was  turned  over  to  be  visible. 

This  does  not  alter  the  super-mundane  fact,  for  it 
was  not  in  the  medium's  mind,  for  he  did  not  know 
the  person  before  him  was  Epes  Sargent  until  some 
exoteric  influence  had  impressed  it  on  his  brain,  and 
that  seems  to  have  been  just  when  it  was  being 
executed  on  the  slate.  This  was  a  very  interesting 
point  with  Mr.  Sargent,  and  more  than  compensated 
him  for  the  preliminary  inhospitality  or  brusqueness. 

Epes  Sargent  was  one  of  our  distinguished,  schol- 
arly Spiritualists.  Watkins  naturally  knew  him  by 
reputation,  but  did  not  know  him  personally,  having 
never  before  met  him.  Not  knowing  who  his  visitor 
was  when  he  called  will  account  for  his  indifference, 
or  his  state  of  mind,  which  so  suddenly  turned  into 
deference  and  obsequious  civility  as  soon  as  he  was 
cognizant  from  the  spirit's  message  in  whose  pres- 
ence he  was. 

Sargent  and  I  have  many  times  spoken  of  this  cir- 
cumstance, and  as  being  evidence  not  only  of  a  royal 
road  for  information,  but  of  two  distinct  personali- 


80  SHADOWS. 

ties, —  the  personality  of  the  spirit  who  saw  and  knew 
Mr.  Sargent,  and  the  personality  of  Charles  E.  Wat- 
kins,  who  did  not  know  Mr.  Sargent  until  his  invisi- 
ble assistant  had  told  him  who  he  was  by  writing  his 
name.  True,  Watkins  knew  it  intuitively  in  advance 
of  seeing  it,  but  manifestly  not  until  it  had  been 
written  by  an  invisible  intelligence. 


"  Copernicus,  reasoning  long  and  patiently  about  the  planet 
Venus,  predicted  confidently  concerning  it  before  the  telescope 
was  invented,  that  if  man  ever  came  to  see  it  more  clearly  they 
would  discover  that  it  had  phases  like  our  moon ;  and  within  a 
century  after  his  death  the  telescope  was  invented,  and  that  pre- 
diction verified.  I  am  not  without  hope  that  we  may  even  here 
and  now  obtain  some  "accurate  information  concerning  that 
'  Other  World,'  which  the  instinct  of  mankind  has  so  long  pre- 
dicted. 

Indeed,  all  that  we  call  science,  as  well  as  all  we  call  poetry, 
is  a  particle  of  such  information,  accurate,  as  fur  as  it  goes, 
though  it  be  but  on  the  confines  of  the  truth.  If  we  can  reason 
so  accurately  and  with  such  wonderful  confirmation  of  our  rea- 
soning respecting  so-called  material  objects  infinitely  removed 
beyond  the  range  of  our  natural  vision,  why  may  not  our  specu- 
lations penetrate  as  well  into  the  immaterial,  starry  system  of 
which  the  former  is  but  the  outward  and  visible  type?  Surely, 
we  are  provided  with  senses  as  well  fitted  to  penbtrate  the 
spaces  of  the  real,  the  substantial,  the  eternal,  as  those  outward 
are  to  penetrate  the  material  universe.  Veias,  Zoroaster,  Soc- 
rates, Christ,  Shakespeare,  Swedenburg, —  these  are  some  of  our 
astronomers." — Henry  D.  Thoreau. 

81 


VII. 

PHENOMENA   WITH   COLCHESTER. 

Thoughts  on   sensuous  phenomena,  and  illustrations 
from  experience. 

The  interest  felt  in  the  spiritual  manifestations  is 
in  the  fact  of  their  being  the  work  of  the  spirits 
of  departed  human  beings.  The  manifestations  in 
themselves  are  generally  only  trifles  hardly  worthy 
of  attention.  My  only  purpose  in  writing  about 
them  now  is  wholly  owing  to  what  I  believe  to  be 
their  intelligent  super-mundane  source.  There  is, 
however,  a  difference  in  them.  Some  would  be 
interesting  simply  as  physical  phenomena,  and  in 
this  respect  those,  through  the  mediumship  of  Mr. 
Colchester,  were  very  unique  and  interesting,  and  in 
them  I  took  a  great  interest  and  the  psychical  or 
will-power  in  their  production,  instead  of  mechanical 
power  on  the  part  of  the  spirits,  or  of  the  medium, 
if  one  chooses  so  to  consider  it,  was  a  source  of  light, 
or,  rather,  suggested  the  rationale  or  explanation  of 
many  other  phases  of  a  more  mechanically-performed 
appearance  in  their  production. 

Colchester  died  a  decade  or  more  ago,  but  many 


84  SHADOWS. 

of  the  old  Spiritualists  will  remember  him  well.  The 
thought  of  him  conies  up  in  connection  with  Epes 
Sargent,  whose  name  appears  so  frequently  in  the 
last  chapter.  We  went  together  very  often  to  witness 
these  manifestations,  and  they  interested  him  very 
much,  more  than  any  other  phase,  unless  it  was  that 
of  independent  slate-writing.  I  might  add  that  that 
distinguished  litterateur  and  scholar  was  always  more 
interested  in  the  sensuous  class  of  manifestations 
than  in  the  sometimes-called  higher  phases  of  the 
mental,  ethical,  or  trance  descriptions.  One  can  see 
this  preference  by  reading  his  publications, —  "The 
Planchette,"  or  "  The  Scientific  Basis  of  Spiritualism." 
1  am  also  similarly  inclined,  with  Mr.  Sargent,  for 
a  preference  for  the  sensuous,  but  am  as  much  inter- 
ested in  the  intellectual  also,  because  I  am  in  those 
of  a  sensuous  or  phenomenal  character.  If  the  phe- 
nomenal or  the  sensuous  were  eliminated,  the  other, 
and  may  be  higher,  phases  in  the  minds  of  many 
would  not  stand  as  spiritual  manifestations  if  unsup- 
ported by  the  former.  The  fact  that  raps  are  made, 
and  movements  of  material  objects  without  material 
contact,  and  other  descriptions  of  physical  phenom- 
ena so  clearly  manifest  by  an  intelligent  invisible 
power,  or  what  I  have  called  sensuous  proof,  it 
throws  a  luster  of  truth,  or,  at  least,  a  luster  of  rea- 
sonableness on  the  other,  of  which  the  observation, 
unaided  by  the  sensuous  phases,  would  not  detect 
any  super-mundane  source  for  the  other,  or  trance  or 
inspirational  utterances.  They  would,  unaided  by 
the  sensuous,  all  be  considered  normal  qualities, — 


PHENOMENA   WITH    COLCHESTER.  85 

hardly  explainable,  to  be  sure,  as  founded  on  educa- 
tion, but  nothing  more  than  is  noticeable  all  over  the 
world  in  the  realm  of  thought  and  oratory. 

With  a  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  comes  so  dis- 
tinctly in  the  sensuous  phases  of  this  impulse,  force, 
or  power,  it  explains  very  rationally  some  extraordin- 
ary gifts  in  quite  uneducated  people,  indicating  a 
royal  road  of  information  and  knowledge,  besides 
being  independent  of  a  scholastic  one,  and  goes  still 
farther  than  that,  extending  the  principle  over  the 
mentality  of  mankind,  whether  Spiritualists  or  not. 

All  thoughtful  people  on  this  subject,  and  favoring 
it,  consider  it  of  a  natural  and  not  a  supernatural 
character;  therefore,  there  is  a  law  for  it,  and,  if 
there  is,  "this  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,"  of 
which  Shakespeare  fancifully  spoke,  arid  which 
modern  Spiritualism  teaches  under  a  more  modest 
name,  this  supervision  or  influence,  whether  we  be- 
lieve it  or  not,  reaches  all  human  beings,  and  many 
an  oration  that  is  a  masterpiece  of  intellectual  and 
eloquent  effort  may  date  more  or  less  from  a  higher 
source  than  the  utterer  of  it,  teaching  us  that  there 
are  Davids,  Ezekiels,  Isaiahs,  and  St.  Pauls  today  in 
the  various  walks  of  life  as  there  were  in  the  days  of 
old. 

It  is  possible  that  the  Lulu  Hursts,  or  other  mag- 
netically-strong people  today,  may  teach  us  without 
drawing  on  the  supernatural  how  Sampson  was  able 
to  do  what  he  did  in  his  day,  if  he  did,  as  recorded. 
It  seems  to  me,  also,  the  poets,  from  Homer  down  to 
Holmes,  as  Thoreau  has  said :  "  Keeping  in  advance 


86  SHADOWS. 

of  the  glare  of  philosophy,  always  dwelling  in  an 
auroral  atmosphere,  writing  glowing  and  ruddy  fables 
that  precede  the  noonday  thoughts  of  men  as  aurora 
does  the  sun's  rays."  Certainly,  if  one  wants  to  find 
profound  truths  in  harmony  with  modern  Spiritual- 
ism, and  not  intending  any  such  harmony  only  as  a 
pleasing  fancy,  he  will  find  them  in  abundance  in  the 
writings  of  the  poets. 

Under  the  thought  which  I  have  expressed,  I  am 
inclined  to  think  when  the  poets,  in  this  auroral  state 
of  mind,  write,  as  the  bard  of  Avon  did,  when  he 
said :  — 

"  As  imagination  bodies  forth 
The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  poet's  pen 
Turns  them  to  shape,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name," 

they  will  find  that  they  had  not  been  building 
castles  in  the  air,  but  will  find  often  that  they  are 
proving  what  that  great  scholar  Henry  Thomas 
Buckle  said:  "That  the  imagination  of  the  poet  in 
one  age  forecasts  the  discoveries  of  science  in  the 
next;"  and  then  cited  many  pages  of  instances  to 
prove  it,  just  as  modern  Spiritualism  has  been  mak- 
ing literal  truth  many  of  the  poetical  beauties  of 
Longfellow,  and  of  many  other  well-remembered 
poets. 

I  began  this  chapter  with  the  intention  of  relating 
some  of  Colchester's  manifestations,  and  I  think  I 
will  not  change  my  mind,  but  let  what  I  have  said 
answer  for  an  introduction,  or  a  setting  to  them. 
Ilis  manifestations  were  various  in  kind.  He  had 


PHENOMENA    WITH    COLCHESTER.  87 

the  red  letters  of  initials  and  names  of  departed 
friends  come  on  his  arms ;  he  gave  tests  also  with 
pellets,  and  many  other  forms  of  the  phenomena. 

The  phase  most  interesting  to  Epes  Sargent,  as 
well  as  to  me,  was  the  artistic  execution  of  pictures 
on  cards  with  colored  pencils  or  crayons,  without  any 
manipulation  or  mechanical  action,  the  execution 
being  by  will-power,  and,  it  is  reasonable  to  say,  by 
the  spirits.  I  will  describe  an  instance  by  way  of 
illustration :  — 

We  were  seated  around  a  table  at  the  pleasant 
home  of  Daniel  Farrar,  of  Hancock  Street,  Boston. 
The  table  was  about  four  feet  by  two,  square.  There 
were  six  persons  making  this  circle,  consisting  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Farrar,  Mrs.  Wetherbee,  Epes  Sargent, 
myself,  and  Colchester, —  two  on  each  of  the  long 
sides,  and  one  each  on  the  ends.  I  had  an  end  seat, 
and  the  back  of  my  chair  was  against  the  bureau  that 
was  on  the  side  of  the  room,  and  Sargent  was  my 
vis-a-vis.  We  were  having  a  very  satisfactory  time, 
with  a  variety  of  manifestations,  and  the  circle  was 
a  remarkably  good  one. 

Colchester  said  to  me  :  "Take  a  few  of  those  plain, 
white  cards "  (they  were  on  the  table  for  the  pur- 
pose) "and  put  them  in  one  of  the  drawers  back  of 
you,  marking  them  first  so  as  to  know  them  again." 
I  did  so,  cutting  a  crooked  piece  out  of  the  corner  of 
each,  and  retaining  them  for  the  purpose.  There 
were  six  in  number  of  the  cards  that  I  took  and  put 
in  the  drawer.  "Now,  take  a  handful  of  those  cray- 
ons," said  he,  "and  throw  them  in,  and  shut  the 


88  SHADOWS. 

drawer."  It  may  be  well  to  say  that  the  drawer  was 
quite  full  of  white,  folded  cotton  materials,  leaving 
no  spare  room,  so  that  the  cards  and  pencils  were  in 
tolerably  close  quarters. 

We  proceeded  then  with  the  manifestations  as 
before,  and  in  perhaps  about  half  an  hour,  in  which 
we  had  other  manifestations,  Mr.  Colchester  said  to 
me :  "Better  now  open  the  drawer,  and  see  how  the 
cards  look."  I  got  up,  and  had  to,  as  before,  in  order 
to  move  my  chair  so  as  to  open  the  drawer,  and  took 
out  what  were  once  the  six  clean,  white  cards,  and 
found  a  picture,  artistically  drawn,  on  each  of  them, 
—  flowers,  fruit,  landscapes,  birds,  etc., —  and  the 
colors  used  in  the  pictures  thus  drawn  were  the 
colors  of  the  crayons  or  pencils  that  were  put  in 
the  bureau  drawer.  Those  crayons  that  we  left  on 
the  table  were  not  expressed  in  the  pictures.  I 
hardly  need  to  say  that  this  was  done  in  a  brightly- 
lighted  room,  and  nobody  had  any  access  to  the 
drawer,  and  could  not  if  they  had  desired  to,  as  I 
was  sitting  so  closely  to  it,  and  had  to  move  my  chair 
before  I  could  open  it. 

It  would  take  much  time  to  write  out  in  detail  all 
my  experiences  with  this  medium.  I  will  add  one 
other  experience, —  one  of  many, —  it  was  certainly 
very  remarkable. 

One  day  when  Epes  Sargent  and  I  were  going  to 
attend  one  of  his  seances,  at  the  same  gentleman's 
house,  he  said  to  me :  "  Suppose  you  stop  at  some 
store  on  your  way  there,  and  buy  some  white  paste- 
board,—  the  cards  used  are  all  right  enough,  but, 


PHENOMENA  WITH   COLCHESTER.  89 

with  our  own,  it  will  make  the  statement  stronger,  if 
we  should  ever  want  to  make  one," —  and  I  did  so  ; 
and,  before  the  seance  began,  cut  this  purchased 
pasteboard  into  pieces  about  six  inches  square,  so 
had  about  a  dozen  of  them,  which  I  laid  in  a  pile  on 
the  table  that  we  were  going  to  use. 

This  time  —  and  usually  the  seance  was  in  Mr. 
Farrar's  parlor  —  we  used  there  an  extension-table, 
and,  on  this  occasion,  about  a  dozen  of  us  were  seated 
around  it,  Mr.  Colchester  sitting  next  to  me.  After 
having  much  writing  on  papers  or  pellets,  and  many 
pictures  drawn  in  this  inscrutable  way,  Mr.  Col- 
chester said  to  me:  "Take  one  of  your  pieces  of 
card,  Mr.  "VVetherbee,  and  mark  it  so  that  you  will 
know  it  again,  and  pass  it  to  me."  I  did  so,  cutting 
off  a  crooked  piece  on  the  corner,  and  putting  it  in 
my  pocket,  and  passed  the  mutilated  card,  clean  and 
white,  to  him.  He  took  it  with  his  thumb  and  ringer 
and  shied  it  over  into  the  opposite  corner  of  the 
room,  grabbed  up  a  handful  of  the  crayons  that  were 
on  the  table,  and  threw  them  over  altogether  into 
the  corner  where  the  card  had  been  shied,  saying,  at 
the  same  time:  "Go  and  pick  the  card  up;"  and  I 
did  so,  and  found  an  artistically-drawn  picture  on  it. 

In  the  execution  of  this  picture,  all  the  colors  that 
the  crayons  were  composed  of  were  used,  and  which 
lay,  as  they  had  fallen,  helter-skelter  about  that  cor- 
ner of  the  room.  The  piece  of  it  that  I  had  kept  in 
my  pocket  as  a  detector  fitted  the  mutilation  exactly, 
ami  the  fact  of  its  being  the  same  identical  piece  of 
cardboard  was  unmistakable.  This  was  not  a  solitary 


90  SHADOWS. 

experiment;  there  were  many  of  them,  and  often,  but 
one  instance  is  enough  to  relate.  You  will  readily 
see  that  this  was  not,  and  could  not,  have  been  a 
mechanical  experiment. 

On  one  of  these  occasions,  during  the  experiment 
of  writing  the  names  of  departed  spirits  on  pellets, 
this  circumstance  occurred.  It  also  was  not  a  soli- 
tary instance;  but  one  is  enough  to  mention.  Col- 
chester said  to  Mr.  Farrar :  "  Now  write  a  few  names 
on  some  slips  of  paper,  and  fix  one  of  them  in  your 
mind,  without  showing  them  to  me,  and  go  and  throw 
them  out  of  the  window;"  and  Mr.  Farrar  did  so. 
"Now,"  said  he,  "think  of  that  name,  and  tell  me 
where  you  would  like  to  find  it."  Remember,  the 
pellets  were  thrown  out  of  the  window,  and  were 
somewhere  out  on  Hancock  Street,  blowing  wherever 
the  wind  chose  to  waft  them. 

Being  thus  asked  where  he  would  like  to  find  the 
pellet  with  the  special  name  on  it,  Mr.  Farrar  said : 
"  In  the  first  vase  on  the  mantel-shelf  "  (there  were 
three  vases  there).  He  went  to  the  vase  and  found 
a  pellet  there.  "  Do  not  open  it,"  said  Colchester ; 
but  he  took  a  piece  of  paper  and  wrote  a  name,  and 
when  the  pellet  was  opened  by  Mr.  Farrar  it  was  the 
same  as  written  by  Colchester,  and  was  the  name 
Mr.  Farrar  had  in  his  mind,  and  seemed  to  be  one  of 
those  that  had  been  thrown  out  of  the  window ;  at 
any  rate,  it  was  one  written  by  Mr.  Farrar,  and  he 
wrote  no  others  but  the  batch  he  threw,  by  request, 
out  of  the  window.  Epes  Sargent,  Hon.  Charles  E. 


PHENOMENA   WITH    COLCHESTER.  91 

Jenkins,  as  well  as  n^self  and  others,  all  had  the 
same  opportunities,  with  the  same  success. 

At  some  of  these  seances  of  Mr.  Colchester's,  at 
the  house  of  Mr.  Farrar,  there  was  present  an  inter- 
esting French  lady,  of  middle  age.  She  was  a  stranger 
to  all  but  the  Farrars,  and  had  not  been  long  in  this 
country.  This  lady  had  lost  a  daughter  a  few  weeks 
before  she  left  Paris.  She  was  a  very  spiritual-look- 
ing and  talking  lady,  and  became  very  much  inter- 
ested in  Spiritualism,  and  what  she  received  at  these 
seances,  and  the  way  she  expressed  herself,  made 
everything  she  got  as  interesting  to  us  or  the  others 
as  if  personal  to  themselves. 

There  had  been  a  great  many  pictures  made  on  this 
occasion.  White  cards  were  placed  in  a  pile  on  the 
floor,  and  a  number  of  crayons  on  them,  about  four 
feet  from  the  medium.  Each  card  in  the  pile  was 
marked  severally  by  each  one  of  the  circle,  and  the 
pile  and  the  crayons  were  covered  over  with  a  table- 
cloth to  insure  darkness,  and  there  was  a  picture 
found  at  short  intervals  on  each,  so  that  each  person 
got  one, —  all  executed  without  human  manipulation 
or  mechanical  power. 

This  French  lady  was  then  told  to  take  one  of  the 
plain,  white  pieces  of  cardboard,  and  hold  it  under 
the  table.  The  hands  of  all  present,  including  the 
medium's,  were  in  plain  sight  on  the  table.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  French  lady  was  requested  to  lay  the 
card  she  was  holding  under  the  table  on  the  table 
for  inspection.  There  was  found  upon  it  a  picture 
and  a  communication.  I  will  try  and  describe  it. 


92  SHADOWS. 

Near  the  center  was  a  circle  drawn  on  it,  around  the 
outside  of  which  was  a  wreath  of  flowers.  Inside  of 
this  circle  was  written  a  very  affectionate  message 
to  the  lady,  signed  with  the  name  of  her  departed 
daughter  who  had  died,  as  has  been  mentioned,  a  few 
weeks  before  she  left  Paris.  The  writing  was  so 
neat  and  small  it  could  with  difficulty  be  read  except 
with  a  inagnifying-glass. 

No  one  knew  anything  about  the  circumstances  of 
tins  lady  except  the  Farrars,  and  they  only  the  circum- 
stances named,  and  that  she  was  an  entire  stranger 
to  the  medium.  This,  then,  all  things  considered, 
was  one  of  the  most  perfect  tests  of  intelligent  spirit 
power  and  spirit  presence,  and  even  of  identification, 
that  one  could  possibly  have. 

When  relating  this  incident  once  in  a  newspaper 
article,  I  closed  it  with  the  quotation  of  a  line  or  two 
of  poetry ;  and  now,  wanting  to  put  a  -finish  to  this 
long  chapter,  I  will  do  so  with  the  same  lines,  which 
are  as  follows :  — 

"  It  may  be 

The  thoughts  that  visit  us —  we  know  not  whence  — 
Sudden  as  inspiration,  are  the  whispers 
Of  disembodied  spirits,  speaking  to  us 
As  friends,  who  wait  outside  a  prison  wall, 
Through  the  barred  windows  speak  to  those  within." 


"  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  the  heart  cries  out  for  love  just  as 
loudly  as  the  brain  calls  for  law ;  and,  further,  I  am  ready  to  admit 
that  to  gain  order  for  the  head  at  the  price  of  the  loss  of  hap- 
piness and  trust  for  the  heart  is  a  most  questionable  advantage, 
or  even  a  positive  loss ;  for  the  heart  and  its  needs  are  as  real 
and  as  true  and  high  a  part  of  human  life  as  is  the  knowledge 
and  thought  of  the  braiu.  I  even  believe  that  happiness  and 
peace  are  so  necessary  a  part  of  life  that  any  life  is  a  failure  that 
in  the  long  run  does  not  gain  them." — Mec.  M.  J.  Savage. 


93 


VIII. 

PHANTOMATIC   TABLE-TALK. 

Being  an  article  illustrative  of  the  subject  in  general. 

There  are  some  things  said  in  the  following  article 
which  I  wrote  for  and  was  printed  in  the  Boston 
Commomvealth,  that  are  worth  mentioning  in  this 
book,  and  will  help  incidentally  to  throw  a  luster  on 
some  of  its  preceding  and  succeeding  pages.  I  dm 
aware  that  part  of  it  is  superfluous  in  this  connection, 
but  I  think  I  had  better  present  it  without  any  muti- 
lation. The  reader  can  skip  whatever  seems  to  him 
irrelevant :  — 

There  it  stands  in  the  opposite  corner  of  the  room, 
looking  at  me  ;  and  yet  how  can  a  table  without  eyes 
look  at  one?  But  I  have  reason  to  think  that  it 
once  did  see  me  ;  yes,  and  many  times,  or  apparently 
did,  and  perhaps  it  does  now.  But  this  needs  an 
explanation,  and  would  perhaps  be  more  properly 
expressed  if  I  said  an  invisible  presence,  acting 
through  it,  made  this  piece  of  furniture  seem  to  see 
me,  or  act  as  if  it  did. 

I  am  speaking  of  a  small,  old-fashioned  table,  or 
lightstand,  which  was  made  in  1751.  That  was  the 

95 


96  SHADOWS. 

year  that  Gray  gave  to  the  world  his  immortal 
"Elegy."  I  did  not  know  that  fact  once  in  this  con- 
nection, but  this  old  table  once  told  me  so  itself,  and 
the  encyclopaedia  indorsed  the  statement.  What  a 
story  this  old  table  could  tell  —  now  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  years  old  —  if  it  were  only  sentient  and 
vocal ! 

Why  should  I  say  "  if,"  after  making  the  above 
historic  statement  as  voiced  by  the  table  ?  If  Robert 
Southey  could  address  a  mummy  whose  cerements 
had  not  been  disturbed  for  three  thousand  years,  and 
make  it  poetically  vocal,  so  may  I  address  this  table 
and  make  it  vocal.  I  think  I  have  the  advantage  of 
the  poet  as  to  the  facts  in  the  case,  but  that  is  a  mat- 
tei;  which  will  be  brought  out  as  I  proceed. 

Even  now,  as  I  am  looking  at  the  old  table,  and 
the  large,  old  Bible  resting  on  it,  of  the  same  age,  — 
for  the  title-page  of  that  shows  it  was  printed  in 
MDCCLL,  —  how  in  fancy  the  old  familiar  ances- 
tral faces  are  associated  with  them,  —  table  and 
book ;  these,  by  some  afinity,  have  always  stuck  by 
each  other.  In  their  connection,  in  my  mind's  eye, 
how  plainly  I  see  the  venerable  face  of  my  grand- 
mother, who  used  to  explain  the  quaint  old  pictures 
to  my  youthful  mind,  and  her  sister  also  (my  mother's 
aunt)  often  in  the  same  instructive  occupation,  and 
(using  a  line  from  Robert  Burns)  like 

"  The  father,  mixing  a'  wi'  admonition  due." 

This  latter  relative  of  mine,  when  she  ascended,  was 
ninety-three  years  old,  and  she  was  born  also  in  1751. 


PHANTOMATIC    TABLE-TALK.  97 

What  a  year  1751  must  have  been  to  the  tribe  of 
"  Shadows " !  This  old  table  came  into  form,  the 
old  Bible  resting  on  it  was  printed,  that  same  year ; 
and  in  1751  that  old  relative,  Aunt  Fales,  was  born  ; 
and,  as  I  have  said,  Gray's  "Elegy"  was  published. 
Am  I  straining  a  point  in  associating  this  poem  with 
what  is  only  personal  property  ?  Well,  let  us  see. 

That  piece  of  immortal  literature  has  nothing  to  do 
with  this  old  table,  or  wTith  the  Bible  on  it,  or  with 
my  venerable  relative ;  and  yet  an  incident  of  an 
Endoric  character  in  its  connection  makes  the  poem 
a  feature  in  this  quadrangular  picture.  Irrespective 
of  the  incident  referred  to,  I  find  an  association 
between  it  and  my  thought  in  one  of  its  verses.  Let 
me  quote  it :  — 

"There  at  the  foot  of  yonder  nodding  beech, 

That  wreathes  its  old  fantastic  roots  so  high, 
His  listless  length  at  noontide  would  he  stretch, 
And  pore  upon  the  brook  that  babbles  by." 

Am  I  not,  even  if  not  prone,  poring  on  the  table 
that  "babbles  by"?  I  am  quite  literal,  as  well  as 
phantomatic,  when  I  say  "  babble."  But  I  may  as 
well  relate  the  Endoric  incident  which  gives  me  more 
than  a  poetic  connection  with  Gray's  "Elegy,"  and 
explain  at  the  same  time  the  significance  of  "  babble," 
and  perhaps  add  a  solemn  luster  to  the  matter  on 
which  I  am  writing. 

A  woman  was  once  living  with  me  in  the  capacity 
of  nurse.  Accidentally,  both  to  her  and  myself,  I 
found  that  she  possessed  that  constitutional  quality 
that  some  people  have,  that  in  their  presence,  and 


98  SHADOWS. 

sometimes  without  contact,  as  was  the  case  with  this 
young  woman,  inanimate  tables  and  other  objects 
become  animate,  and  intelligently  move,  it  would 
seem,  by  the  said  objects'  own  volition,  or  give  off 
audible  sounds,  or  raps,  as  they  are  called,  that  are 
intelligent,  and  as  translatable  as  a  ticker  in  a  tele- 
graph office.  This  old  table  was  particularly  apt  to 
be  thus  talkative,  when  near  enough  to  this  woman 
to  be  within  the  sphere  of  her  magnetism. 

This  person  lived  with  us  about  two  years,  and  I 
thus  had  two  years  of  very  valuable  experience.  She 
was  not  aware  she  had  this  power  until  I  discovered 
it,  and  she  knew  nothing  at  tirst  of  my  dead  and 
buried  relatives ;  but  noticing  this  phenomenon,  and 
investigating  it  with  this  old  table,  to  her  surprise 
and  mine  the  translation  of  the  sounds  and  move- 
ments by  the  alphabet  proved  to  be  communications 
from  individuals  who  had  died. 

This  was  no  surprise  to  me,  because  I  had  had 
experience  before,  but  I  was  a  little  surprised  to  find 
one  of  the  invisibles  giving  the  name  of  "  Hannah," 
particularly  when  in  reply  to  "Hannah  who?"  the 
response  came  "Fales," — for  that  was  Aunt  Fales, 
the  old  relative  who  was  born  in  1751.  The  moment 
I  recognized  her  the  table  was  violently  active,  as  if 
to  express  pleasant  emotion  at  the  recognition.  I 
was  sure,  under  the  circumstances,  that  I  was  in  the 
presence  of  my  departed  relative,  whose  body  had 
long  before  been  laid  away  in  the  grave. 

This  was  no  solitary  instance.  The  manifestations 
during  those  two  years  were  multitudinous,  and  of 


PHANTOMATIC    TABLE-TALK.  99 

every  variety.  I  do  not  propose  now  to  make  any 
record  of  them  in  detail,  but  will  mention  one 
instance  in  connection  with  this  relative,  because  her 
birth-year  and  this  table's  and  Bible's  birth-year  were 
the  same.  I  have  other  reasons,  also,  which  will 
explain  themselves  as  I  proceed. 

It  was  at  one  of  these  Endoric  interviews  (I  use  the 
word  "  Endoric,"  because  during  my  life  a  picture  in 
that  old  book  of  the  woman  of  Endor  raising  Samuel 
was  one  that  had  often  attracted  her  attention,  and 
of  course  mine),  as  if  to  prove  an  intelligence  that 
was  distinct  from  and  superior  to  the  young  woman's 
through  whose  influence  this  old  table  was  thus 
vocal,  and  possibly  to  make  the  point  certain  that  the 
information  did  not  come  from  me  by  mind-reading, 
that  the  table-raps  claiming  to  be  from  Aunt  Fales 
said  this  table  and  Bible  and  Gray's  "Elegy"  were 
of  the  same  age.  As  I  have  said,  investigation 
showed  me  that  the  poem  was  published  in  1751. 
So  this  old  table,  or  the  invisible  intelligence  using 
it  as  a  mouthpiece,  was  a  well-read  institution,  and 
also  had  told  the  truth. 

A  little  argument  will  seem  to  be  in  order  here  : 
That  poem  then,  as  now,  was  very  popular,  and  all 
intelligent  people,  a  hundred  years  ago,  were  famil- 
iar with  it ;  the  world  was  not  then  as  full  as  it  is 
now  of  good  productions,  hence  the  minds  of  the 
thoughtful  were  not  as  crowded  as  they  are  now ; 
and  so  in  this  case  the  poem,  being  probably  as 
familiar  to  her  as  the  Lord's  Prayer,  came  readily  to 
the  surface,  when  such  a  circumstance  today  might  be 


100  SHADOWS. 

called  pedantry.  Everyone  will  remember  that  Gen- 
eral Wolfe,  the  hero  of  the  successful  battle  on 
the  Heights  of  Abraham,  declared  admiringly  that 
he  would  rather  be  the  author  of  that  poem  than  the 
winner  of  battles. 

Speaking  now  of  the  communication,  and  the  coin- 
cidence of  the  date,  which  I  knew  nothing  about  in 
any  definite  manner,  it  was  a  felicity  in  thought  that 
I  appreciate,  and  I  have  no  doubt  the  spirit  of  Ai;nt 
Fales  did,  too  ;  and  if  that  woman  (I  mean  the  nurse) 
were  now  alive,  and  present  at  this  moment,  I  have 
no  doubt  this  old  table  would  signify  its  knowledge 
of  what  I  am  writing  about  by  a  visible  manifesta- 
tion sufficient  to  joggle  the  old  book  that  now  rests 
on  it.  But,  old  table,  though  you  are  now  still,  I 
feel  that  the  presence  is  there ;  and  so  I  will  say,  as 
the  poet  said  when  lately  speaking  of  Burns :  — 

"  A  presence  haunts  this  room  tonight, 
A  force  of  mingled  mist  and  light, 

From  that  far  coast. 
Welcome  beneath  this  roof  of  mine  I 
Welcome !  this  vacant  chair  is  thine, 

Dear  friend  and  ghost ! " 

I  am  writing  very  truthfully,  and  not  drawing  at 
all  on  my  imagination.  This  being  admitted,  is  not 
this  incident  pretty  good  evidence  that  this  venerable 
lady  of  1751  was  still  alive  and  at  this  table  at  that 
time,  and  possibly  now  ?  Certainly  some  one  was, 
for  a  table  cannot  speak  unaided ;  and  if  anyone  was, 
it  may  as  likely  have  been  she  as  another.  Does  it 
not  almost  make  the  tender  fancy  of  Longfellow, 


PHANTOMATIC   TABLE-TALK.  101 

when  he  speaks  of  the  departed,  as  something  more 
than  poetry, —  something  actual  ?  This,  for  instance, 
may  be  wiser  than  he  knew :  — 

"  There  are  more  guests  at  table  than  the  hosts 

Invited.     This  illumined  hall 
Is  thronged  with  quiet,  inoffensive  ghosts 
As  silent  as  the  pictures  on  the  wall." 

Though  alone  now  in  my  library,  I  do  not  feel  that 
I  am  alone.  Looking  at  that  table  and  its  associa- 
tions, I  almost  feel,  aided  perhaps  by  my  imagina- 
tion, "a  sense  of  something  moving  to  and  fro." 
One  of  my  ancestors  was  a  seeress, —  could  at  times 
see  the  forms  of  the  departed,  arid  knew  them,  and 
sometimes  knew  their  wishes  and  intentions.  As 
this  ancestor  was,  during  her  earthly  life,  the  owner 
of  both  table  and  Bible,  she  may,  in  a  sentimental 
sense,  still  hold  the  fee  of  them. 

To  be  understood,  let  me  quote  again  a  verse  from 
the  same  poet,  which  expresses  the  idea  better  and 
briefer  than  I  otherwise  can :  — 

"  We  have  no  title-deeds  to  house  or  lands ; 
Owners  and  occupants  of  earlier  dates 
From  graves  forgotten  stretch  their  dusky  hands, 
And  hold  in  mortmain,  still  their  old  estates." 

She  may  have  lent  to  these  venerable  articles  a 
charm  that  lingers,  and,  in  a  sentimental  way,  influ- 
ences her  descendant,  inspiring  his  thought,  as  the 
subject  certainly  does ;  but  memories  of  those  ancients 
out  of  the  form,  these  old  mementoes  still  in  the 
form,  crowd  upon  me  thick  and  fast,  and  for  fear  of 


102  SHADOWS. 

being  too  lengthy  for  a  newspaper  article,  I  think  I 
had  better  turn  off  the  gas,  so  to  speak,  or  rather  the 
flow  of  ink;  so,  with  the  relation  of  an  interesting 
circumstance  which  old  Aunt  Fales  has  often  told 
me,  I  will  close  this  article. 

This,  to  be  sure,  will  not  be  an  item  of  "  phanto- 
matic  table-talk,*'  as  I  relate  it  from  memory,  but  it 
always  interested  me,  and  may  be  interesting  to  oth- 
ers, as  it  is  a  fact  in  early  Boston  history ;  and  the  old 
table,  though  at  this  moment  voiceless,  seems  to 
invite  me  to  do  what  it  could  of  itself  if  the  old  con- 
ditions were  now  attainable. 

Abiel  Smith,  who  was  Aunt  Fales's  brother,  lived 
on  State  Street,  at  the  corner  of  Pudding  Lane,  now 
Devonshire  Street.  This  was  before  the  war  of  the 
Revolution.  His  store,  where  he  and  his  wife  had 
done  a  thrifty  business  for  some  years,  was  on  the 
ground  floor;  over  it,  and  in  the  rear,  the  family 
lived.  He  had  no  children,  so  his  family  were  his 
wife  and  the  shop-tenders, —  who  were  generally  his 
relatives, —  male  and  female,  from  the  country.  Times 
had  become  warlike  and  troublesome, —  the  English 
soldiers  were  encamped  on  the  Neck,  and  ingress  and 
egress  to  and  from  the  town  were  difficult,  and,  under 
the  circumstances,  rather  dangerous. 

Aunt  Fales,  then  a  young  woman,  was  living  with 
them  at  this  period.  Her  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Smith, 
began  to  feel  uneasy  about  their  property,  and  wanted 
to  get  out  of  the  city  with  it ;  but  Abiel  saw  that 
that  was  impossible.  She  proposed  a  division,  and 
she  would  try  to  take  care  of  her  half.  They 


PH  AUTOMATIC   TABLE-TALK.  103 

made  a  fair  division, —  on  the  one  side,  the  debts 
and  the  stock,  and,  perhaps,  the  house ;  and  on 
the  other,  the  gold.  Mrs.  Smith  took  the  gold, 
which  was  about  $20,000,  for  her  part,  leaving  her 
husband  the  more  valuable  half,  but,  of  course,  the 
more  risky  half.  Mrs.  Smith  and  Aunt  Fales  then 
made  some  petticoats  and  quilted  a  guinea  in  every 
square,  and  when  the  two  women  were  dressed  for 
their  journey  they  had  $20,000  in  gold  in  their  skirts. 
In  that  way  they  rode  through  the  British  lines. 

In  their  agitation,  Mrs.  Smith  could  not  find  the 
key  of  their  trunk,  and  the  inspecting  soldier  broke  it 
open  with  his  bayonet,  and,  finding  nothing  contra- 
band, let  them  pass  through  the  lines.  Aunt  Fales 
said  she  never  was  so  frightened  in  all  her  life ;  but 
they  got  safely  out  into  the  country,  gold  and  all. 
When  the  British  evacuated,  as  they  did  a  few  months 
after,  Mrs.  Smith  returned  with  her  gold.  It  was  a 
matter  of  some  surprise  among  the  merchants  of 
those  days  where  "  old  Smith  "  got  so  much  money, 
for  he  became  a  larger  buyer  of  goods,  and  always 
had  the  "  ready  "  to  pay  for  his  purchases. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  one  of  the  large  fortunes 
of  those  times,  and  Abiel  Smith,  who  survived  his 
wife  a  year  or  two,  died  early  in  this  century,  and, 
having  no  children,  his  large  fortune,  for  those  days, 
was  divided  among  his  relatives,  chiefly  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  his  eleven  brothers  and  sisters. 


IX. 


EPES    SARGENT. 

Some  description  of  him,  and  experiences  he  and  the 
writer  have  had  together.  —  Joseph  Cook. 

"  My  sprightly  neighbor,  gone  before, 
To  that  unknown  and  silent  shore, 
Shall  we  not  meet  as  heretofore, 
Some  summer  morning?  " 

I  commence  with  this  quotation  a  chapter  on  my 
friend  and  neighbor,  Epes  Sargent,  not  because  it  in 
any  sense  applies  to  him,  but  because  he  has  often 
quoted  it  as  applicable  to  me,  strained  possibly,  and 
also  as  an  illustration  in  his  many  conferences  with 
me.  Although  it  is  some  of  the  "jubilant  spray" 
from  Charles  Lamb's  flow  of  cheerful  thought,  I 
always  think  of  it  in  connection  with  our  late  schol- 
arly brother,  Epes  Sargent. 

How  many  times  and  how  pleasantly  has  the  calm 
face  of  this  friend  and  neighbor  shone  in  upon  me 
while  seated  in  my  library  room  reading  or  writing, 
as  I  am  now.  He  could  see  me  very  plainly  as  he 
came  down  the  street  past  my  library  window,  and 
then,  walking  in,  would  spend  a  few  minutes,  and 

104 


EPES    SARGENT.  105 

sometimes  an  hour  or  two,  in  pleasant  conversation 
on  the  subject  of  the  spirits,  in  which  we  were  both 
so  interested. 

I  do  not  say  this  for  the  sake  of  telling  of  our 
intellectual  intimacy,  and  the  open  and  free  manner 
he  communicated  with  me,  sometimes  reading  a 
manuscript  of  some  book,  or  part  of  one,  that  he  was 
preparing  for  the  press.  Two  or  three  of  his  later 
works  I  knew  something  of  in  the  composition  of 
them  by  this  familiar  ante-natal  inspection. 

I  am  now  writing  a  chapter  under  his  name  as  the 
subject,  and  who  knows  but  by  his  invisible  direc- 
tion ?  I  am  sure  it  is  by  his  influence.  I  can  say 
that  much  without  encroaching  upon  the  domain  of 
the  super-mundane.  I  feel  that  anything  I  have  to 
say  of  our  cultured  friend  will  find  a  hospitable 
reception  from  the  readers  of  this  book,  which,  I 
suppose,  will  generally  be  Spiritualists,  or  the  philo- 
spiritual  class ;  for  though  the  intellectual  stars  now 
shining  in  our  firmament  of  thought  are  many  and 
notable  compared  with  the  earlier  days  of  the  cause, 
Epes  Sargent,  as  editor,  poet,  scholar,  and  litterateur 
was  conspicuous,  and  a  credit  to  this  fast-rising  and 
spreading  light. 

I  have  known  him  as  townsman  and  neighbor  a 
great  many  years,  from  a  comparatively  young  man 
to  a  somewhat  old  one, —  that  is,  if  a  man  is  old 
when  he  is  in  the  sixties.  I  saw,  however,  much 
more  of  him  during  his  last  decade  than  at  any  earlier 
period  of  his  life,  our  similarity  of  thought  drawing 
us  into  closer  intellectual  communion. 


106  SHADOWS. 

I  was  somewhat  informed  of  his  last  book,  "  The 
Scientific  Basis  of  Spiritualism,"  in  advance  of  its 
publication,  and  it  was  with  much  pleasure  I  said 
"Yea,  verily,''  to  him  when  he  presented  me  a  copy, 
and  said  he  would  be  glad  for  me  to  give  in  print  my 
opinion  of  it.  I  said  to  Mr.  Sargent :  "  I  will  do  so 
with  pleasure,  but  you  know  my  way  of  presenting  a 
thing  is  very  different  from  your  way.  You  are  schol- 
arly and  methodic,  and  I  make  no  pretensions  to  the 
literary  guild.  I  am,  you  know,  a  Bohemian  in  the 
pen  line,  though  well-behaved  morally."  "  I  want 
you,"  said  he  in  reply,  "  to  express  yourself  in  your 
own  way.  I  would  prefer  your  sincerity,  warmth, 
and  naturalness  to  any  closet  production  from  Avhat 
you  call  scholarly  people." 

As  I  have  an  interesting  reminiscence  to  relate 
before  passing  from  his  name  in  this  connection,  I 
will  copy  a  paragraph  or  two  from  my  article  on  his 
last  book,  both  as  an  introduction  to  the  reminis- 
cence referred  to  and  also  as  a  fact  in  current  liter- 
ary life,  showing  the  sacrifices  a  man  even  of  estab- 
lished reputation  makes  by  identifying  himself  with 
this  subject. 

This,  however,  is  somewhat  passing  away,  and  the 
fact  that  a  popular  metropolitan  minister,  like  the 
Rev.  M.  J.  Savage,  can  say,  and  have  it  widely 
reported  as  he  did  in  a  late  Easter-Sunday  sermon: 
"  Modern  Spiritualism  is  too  big  a  fact  in  modern  life 
to  be  ignored ;  thousands  and  thousands  in  Europe 
and  America  believe  in  its  central  claim.  There  are 
thousands  of  silent  believers  also  who  do  not  like  to 


EPES    SARGENT.  107 

be  called  knave  or  fool,  and  so  keep  still  about  it, 
and,  li'ke  Nicodemus,  they  come  by  night,  lest  they 
be  cast  out  of  the  synagogue."  It  shows,  as  he  says, 
it  is  too  large  a  matter  now  to  be  ignored. 

The  paragraph  referred  to  that  I  propose  to  copy 
from  the  old  article  of  which  I  have  spoken,  reads  as 
follows :  — 

"  As  plenty  as  books  are,  it  is  no  ordinary  thing 
when  a  man  of  thought  and  culture,  who  has  a  hear- 
ing, writes  a  book  on  a  subject  that  has  had  his  care- 
ful study  and  investigation  for  a  score  or  two  of 
years,  and  especially  when,  as  in  the  matter  before 
us,  after  these  pains  and  study,  he  writes  a  book  on 
an  unpopular  subject,  a  subject  avoided  by  the  leading 
minds  of  the  age,  because  prejudice  and  fashion  are 
against  it,  because  no  credit  is  to  be  gained  by  the 
effort  in  its  behalf  in  the  world  of  letters ;  in  fact, 
when  the  history  of  its  investigation  has  shown  with- 
out an  exception  that  no  amount  of  erudition,  or 
reputation  for  wisdom,  no  successes  in  other  fields  of 
literary  or  scientific  pursuits  on  their  part,  have  been 
sufficient  to  secure  for  its  witnesses  a  respectful  or 
respectable  hearing  in  the  aristocracy  of  letters ;  or, 
putting  it  in  the  mildest  form,  any  favorable  report, 
or  any  defense  of  the  subject  on  the  ground  of  its 
basis  of  truth,  or  its  worthiness  of  attention, —  the 
verdict  has  been  in  each  case  by  his  fellow-savants, 
that  the  man  thus  bearing  witness  to  the  unpopular 
fact  is  in  his  dotage,  or  getting  credulous  as  he  grows 
old,  or  has  been  duped  by  imposition  in  fields  where 
he  was  not  expert. 


108  SHADOWS. 

"A  book,  then,  on  this  subject  'with  the  image 
and  superscription  of  Caesar  upon  it,'  so  to  speak,  is 
an  extraordinary  thing,  and  should  be  welcomed  by 
the  body  politic  of  Spiritualists,  and  also,  to  some 
extent,  by  the  educated  outside  world,  who  are  so 
apt  to  think  that  nothing  good  comes  out  of  Naza- 
reth. 

"The  history  of  every  scholar,  or  man  of  estab- 
lished reputation,  who  has  become  more  or  less  iden- 
tified with  or  has  defended  modern  Spiritualism,  will 
warrant  the  assertion  I  have  made,  and  that  in  a 
popular  sense  the  '  Light '  in  literature  and  science 
who  undertakes  its  investigation,  if  fair  and  honest, 
has  everything  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain,  except 
the  consoling  fact  of  its  truth. 

"If  a  man  is  in  eclipse  on  account  of  it  today,  his 
shining  hour  will  arrive  sometime,  at  least  in  the 
hereafter,  and  this  especial  truth  being  the  perpetuity 
of  individual  conscious  life  beyond  the  grave,  the 
consolation  referred  to  is  a  compensation  in  a  very 
peculiar  sense." 

The  reminiscences  to  which  I  have  referred,  and 
considering  what  I  have  said  and  quoted  in  the  light 
of  an  introduction,  is  as  follows :  — 

Jt  was  a  short  time,  perhaps  a  week,  after  I  had 
attended  Mr.  Sargent's  funeral,  that  I  was  sitting  at 
the  writing-table  in  my  library,  pen  in  hand,  calcu- 
lating to  work  on  a  matter  that  I  had  put  off  until 
then,  and  was  proposing  to  devote  the  evening  to  it. 
My  eye  accidentally  fell  on  the  lines  with  which  I 
began  this  chapter.  They  were  in  my  scrap-book; 


EPES    SARGENT.  109 

they  had  a  red-pencil  mark  against  them,  as  if  at 
some  previous  time  they  had  made  an  impression 
upon  me.  At  that  moment  they  seemed  to  speak  to 
me  as  if  there  really  was  a  man  or  a  spirit  back  of 
them,  and  I  have  a  strong  impression  there  was. 

I  read  them,  and  thinking  of  Epes  Sargent  who  had 
then  so  lately  deceased,  I  said  aloud,  as  if  in  response 
to  the  Lamb  lines :  "  Yes,  of  course,  we  will ! "  I 
seemed  to  feel  that  he  was  speaking  to  me  those 
words,  as  he  had  done  when  he  was  alive  and  talking 
with  me.  Only  a  few  weeks  before  that  evening  he 
was  sitting  opposite  me  at  this  table  where  I  am  now 
writing.  He  spent,  as  he  often  had,  an  hour  or  so 
with  me  in  social  converse, —  getting  the  news,  as  he 
called  it, —  as  he  lived  more  in  the  closet  than  I  did, 
I  living  more  in  the  world  of  affairs,  so  we  could 
change  our  center  of  gravity  and  be  mutually  bene- 
ficial. 

I  had  a  very  strong  feeling  that  he  was  sitting 
there  then  as  an  invisible  spirit, —  there  was  the  same 
soft  chair  that  he  occupied  then  as  a  visible  one.  I 
often  feel  the  presence  of  unseen  company  in  this 
way  when  I  am  alone.  Longfellow  expresses  my 
thought  in  this  connection  better  than  I  can,  so  I 
will  quote  the  verse,  and  I  did  audibly  at  the  time  of 
which  I  am  speaking  :  — 

"  His  presence  haunts  this  room  tonight, 
A  force  of  mingled  mist  and  light 

From  that  far  coast. 
Welcome  beneath  this  roof  of  mine ! 
Welcome  !  this  vacant  chair  is  thine, 
Dear  friend  and  ghost !  " 


110  SHADOWS. 

Referring  to  the  lines  again  of  Charles  Lamb, 
which  set  my  pen  in  motion  at  the  time  in  this  direc- 
tion, instead  of  doing  the  work  that  I  was  intending 
to  do,  "Sprightly  "  hardly  applies  to  our  late  "guest 
and  ghost,"  for  he  was  the  reverse  of  that;  he  was 
genial,  but  very  solid  and  thoughtful ;  so  far  also 
from  my  being  sprightly,  I  have  wondered  what  he 
found  to  appreciate  in  me,  for  by  the  application  of 
my  being  his  "  sprightly  neighbor,"  and  he  was  my 
sedate  and  thoughtful  one.  I  do  not  claim  the  cog- 
nomen ;  I  only  mention  it  because  he  has  expressed 
an  interest  in  my  peculiar  way  of  saying  things, 
which,  as  everyone  knows,  is  quite  the  reverse  of 
his  way.  He  was  scholarly  and  very  careful, —  1  am 
only  natural. 

I  appreciated  his  able  additions  to  spiritual  litera- 
ture. How  thankful  we  all  ought  to  be  that,  with 
his  prestige  of  literary  standing,  he  so  identified  him- 
self with  Spiritualism. 

I  had  one  or  two  sittings  with  Susan  Nickerson 
White,  the  late  well-known  medium,  within  a  week 
or  two  after  his  decease,  one  of  them  the  next  day  after 
his  funeral,  not  for  the  purpose  of  communicating 
witli  him,  but  for  another  object  entirely,  and  one  or 
two  during  the  subsequent  week  or  two.  I  will  give 
a  brief  sketch  of  them  where  they  refer  to  him. 
They  interested  me  as  being  worthy  of  record,  so 
that  I  now  do  not  wholly  draw  on  my  memory,  and 
yet  the  circumstances  are  very  distinct  there  also. 

Mr.  Sargent's  funeral  was  on  Sunday.  On  the 
next  afternoon  I  had  a  sitting,  as  I  have  said,  with 


EPES    SARGENT.  Ill 

Mrs.  White.  She  said,  before  going  into  a  trance : 
"  I  see  a  man  by  the  side  of  you  ;  he  is  a  small  man ; 
hair  thin  and  gray,  and  head  a  little  bald ;  he  puts 
his  hand  on  your  head."  The  medium  then  became 
entranced,  and  said  with  a  slow,  low,  and  distinct 
voice :  "Wetherbee,  you  can  hardly  realize  it,  but  I 
am  Epes  Sargent."  I  did  realize  it,  and  felt  from 
the  first,  when  clairvoyantly  she  said  she  saw  and 
described  the  small  man  standing  near  me,  that  it 
was  Epes  Sargent.  He  then,  in  the  same  low  and 
distinct  voice,  quite  different  from  the  medium's  in 
her  normal  state,  spoke  of  his  change,  how  he  found 
things  as  he  expected,  and  so  would  I,  he  said :  "  It  is 
just  the  place  that  we  used  to  expect  it  would  be." 

In  the  pause  that  followed,  thinking  of  his  funeral 
that  I  had  attended  the  day  before,  I  remarked  to 
him  that  I  was  glad  that  Spiritualism  was  not  ignored 
at  his  funeral  services.  "Yes,"  he  replied,  "William 
spoke  well,  did  he  not?  —  I  mean  Mr.  William  Mount- 
ford."  The  spirit  seemed  to  correct  himself  after 
saying  William,  for  I  did  not  know  the  reverend 
gentleman's  name  by  William,  but  he,  being  an  old 
friend  of  Mr.  Mountford,  it  was  natural  for  him  to 
say  William,  but  it  required  the  Mountford  for  me 
to  know  to  whom  he  referred.  I  was  aware  of  and 
pleased  with  the  funeral  address  by  him,  and  so,  in 
reply  to  the  spirit  said :  "  Yes,  he  did  speak  well." 
After  talking  in  this  Avay  a  little  while,  the  spirit 
said:  "I  could  not  resist  the  opportunity  of  coin- 
ing to  you  at  this  time,  but  as  you  are  here,  Wether- 


112  SHADOWS. 

bee,  for  other  matters,  I  will  take  my  leave,  for  your 
friends  are  already  waiting  to  talk  with  you." 

I  think  I  have  very  good  reason  to  think  this  was 
Epes  Sargent's  spirit.  Mrs.  White  told  me  after- 
wards that  she  did  not  know  Mr.  Sargent  only  by 
reputation ;  never  saw  him  in  her  life  that  she  knew 
of.  Most  people  who  knew  me  as  well  as  Mr.  Sargent 
did  would  call  me  John  when  addressing  me ;  but 
Sargent  always  called  me  Wetherbee,  and  omitting 
the  "Mr.";  and  it  will  be  noticed  on  this  occasion 
that  the  medium,  or  the  spirit  rather,  so  addressed 
me.  It  rather  seems  to  me,  if  there  had  been  a  pre- 
tence, at  this  time  it  would  have  been  safer  to  have 
said  John  (for  a  spirit  is  privileged  to  take  liberties) 
than  to  have  called  me  Wetherbee,  and  thougli  it  is 
only  a  straw  it  shows  the  direction  of  the  wind. 

At  a  subsequent  sitting,  Mr.  Sargent  came  in  the 
same  modest  way,  only  using  a  very  little  of  the  time, 
but  enough  to  let  me  know  that  he  was  my  "  guest 
and  ghost "  at  my  home,  leading  me  to  infer  from 
what  he  did  say  that  he  had  influenced  the  change  of 
work  or  thought  on  the  evening  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  where  the  Lamb-stanza  so  sentimentally  hove 
in  sight,  as  the  mariner  would  say.  There  is  noth- 
ing certain  about  this  as  there  is  about  some  of  my 
experiences,  for  the  fact  was  very  strongly  in  my 
mind  that  Epes  Sargent  was  concerned  in  the  cogi- 
tation of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  a  spirit  might 
have  reached  it  from  me  on  the  principle  of  mind- 
reading  ;  but,  believing  as  I  do,  what  is  the  use  of 
straining  for  a  negative  solution?  It  pleases  me 


EPES    SARGENT.  113 

whether  it  does  anybody  else  or  not.      I  give  his 
presence  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 

A  JOSEPH   COOK   KEMINISCENCE. 

While  presenting  this  article  under  the  heading  of 
Epes  Sargent,  I  may  as  well  add  to  it  a  page  or  two 
in  relation  to  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook,  in  connection 
with  him,  referring  to  his  investigation  of  the  phe- 
nomena at  Mr.  Sargent's  house.  I  hardly  need  to 
say  that  I  am  no  hero  worshiper,  and  am  very  apt 
to  think  that  one  man  is  about  equal  to  another  in 
one  sense,  or,  at  least,  in  the  absokite  sense ;  but 
there  are  some  people  who,  from  luck,  ability,  or  cir- 
cumstances have  a  prestige  or  prominence  among 
their  fellows,  so  that  what  they  say  or  do  has  more 
effect,  gets  a  wider  hearing,  carrying  with  it  an  influ- 
ence more  than  the  average. 

A  suggestive  statement  may  be  made  by  a  nobody, 
so  to  speak,  the  utterer  an  obscure  individual,  and 
but  little  attention  given  to  it ;  but  the  same  state- 
ment uttered  by  a  Wendell  Phillips,  or  other  notable, 
and  it  gets  a  hearing  from  one  end  of  the  country  to 
the  other.  It  is  an  idea  of  this  kind  that  leads  me  to 
speak  of  Joseph  Cook  in  this  connection.  He  seems 
to  have  become  (or  had  in  the  day  of  which  I  am 
now  speaking)  one  of  the  prominent  evangelical 
lights,  giving  a  course  or  two  of  lectures  in  the  Old 
South  Church,  in  Boston,  which  was  a  feature  in  the 
religious  doings  of  that  city. 

His  utterances  were  so  sensational  as  well  as  bright, 
aiming,  or  claiming  also,  to  make  modern  science  and 


114  SHADOWS. 

religion  coalesce  or  harmonize,  that  his  discourses, 
reported  in  full  in  the  respectable  dailies,  were  read 
by  a  million  people,  and  furnished  the  thought  for 
half  the  evangelical  pulpits  in  New  England.  He, 
therefore,  is  one  of  the  prominent  men  whose  sayings 
and  doings  were  of  more  consequence  than  any  hun- 
dred perhaps  of  equally  able  men.  This,  then,  is  the 
reason  why  I  think  what  I  have  to  say  of  his  investi- 
gation a  matter  of  more  than  passing  notice. 

After  Mr.  Sargent  had  received  from  me  the  per- 
fect evidence  I  had  had  of  spirit-writing,  and  having 
gone  himself,  and  under  somewhat  remarkable  cir- 
cumstances, got  the  communication  that  was  so  self- 
satisfying,  he  followed  it  up,  giving  a  good  deal  of 
attention  to  Air.  Watkins's  phenomenon,  and  it  was 
frequently  given  at  his  own  house,  and  he  and  his 
family  had  great  proof  of  the  perfect  genuineness  of 
the  manifestations.  I  have  before  me  now  a  long  com- 
munication of  his  that  was  printed  in  the  Boston 
Transcript,  full  of  such  convincing  points  and  de- 
tailed statements  that  anyone  believing  the  testi- 
mony of  Epes  Sargent,  the  scholarly  author  of  the 
"  Scientific  Basis  of  Spiritualism,"  could  not  help 
believing  in  modern  Spritualism.  Some  of  them  are 
worth  repeating  here,  but  having  in  my  mind  the 
Cook  investigation,  I  think  I  had  better  confine 
myself  to  that. 

Mr.  Sargent,  learning  that  Mr.  Cook  would  like  to. 
witness   some   of  the   phenomena  with  Watkins  in 
some  respectable  way,  a  seance  was  arranged  for  his 
benefit.     This  was  on  March  13,  1880.     In  speaking 


EPES    SARGENT.  115 

of  it  afterwards  at  the  next  Monday's  lecture  to  his 
large  audience  in  the  Old  South,  he  began  with  these 
words  (I  copy  them  from  the  report  in  the  Boston 
Advertiser)  :  — 

"In  the  library  of  Epes  Sargent,  last  Saturday,  I  con- 
sented to  see  a  psychic,  of  whom  I  had  heard  various  things, 
some  of  them  not  altogether  reassuring.  I  took  with  me  my 
family  physician  (laughter)  and  my  wife  (laughter  and 
applause).  In  the  company  of  nine  persons  assembled  in 
the  library  there  were  four  believers  and  five  unbelievers  in 
Spiritualism." 

He  then  gave  the  details  of  the  experiments,  say- 
ing where  they  were  satisfactory  and  where  they 
were  unsatisfactory.  There  were  many  points  of 
each.  A  careful  reading  of  each  of  these  depart- 
ments will  show  to  any  fair-minded  man  that  the 
satisfactory  points  were  in  no  way  impaired  by  the 
reading  of  the  unsatisfactory  ones.  I  suppose  they 
were  qualifications,  or  loop-holes,  for  partial  retreat, 
should  he  be  hurting  his  usefulness  or  popularity  by  las 
admissions.  The  paper  signed  by  all  present,  includ- 
ing Joseph  Cook,  speaks  for  itself,  and  is  all  any 
Spiritualist  asks  of  an  outsider,  "  that  fraud  does  not 
account  for  it ; "  the  solution  will  take  care  of  itself. 
Here  is  a  copy  of  the  document  that  Joseph  Cook 
and  the  others  signed :  — 

"At  the  house  of  Epes  Sargent,  on  the  evening  of  Satur- 
day, March  13,  1880,  the  undersigned  saw  two  clean  slates 
placed  face  to  face,  with  a  bit  of  slate-pencil  between  them. 


116  SHADOWS. 

We  all  held  our  hands  clasped  around  the  edges  of  the  two 
slates.  Mr.  Wutkins's  hands  also  clasped  the  slates. 

"  In  this  position,  we  all  distinctly  heard  the  pencil  mov- 
ing, and  on  opening  the  slates  found  an  intelligent  message, 
in  a  strong,  masculine  hand,  in  answer  to  a  question  asked 
by  one  of  the  company. 

•'Afterwards,  two  slates  were  clamped  together  with 
strong  brass  fixtures,  and  held  at  arm's  length  by  Mr.  Cook, 
while  the  rest  of  the  company  and  the  psychic  had  their 
hands  in  full  view  on  the  table.  After  a  moment  of  wait- 
ing, the  slates  were  opened,  and  a  message,  in  a  feminine 
hand,  was  found  on  one  of  the  inner  surfaces.  There  were 
five  lighted  gas-burners  in  the  room  at  the  time. 

"  We  cannot  apply  to  these  facts  any  theory  of  fraud,  and 
we  do  not  see  how  the  writing  can  be  explained,  unless  mat- 
ter in  the  slate-pencil  was  moved  without  contact." 

The  paper,  of  which  the  above  is  an  exact  copy, 
signed  by  Mr.  Cook  and  the  others,  speaks  for  itself. 
Mr.  Sargent  often  spoke  to  me  of  this  seance,  and  the 
circumstances,  and  said  Mr.  Cook  was  very  much 
pleased  and  interested  in  what  he  saw,  and  came  to 
him  at  starting,  saying :  "  I  thank  you,  Mr.  Sargent, 
for  the  opportunity  of  seeing  the  manifestations 
under  sucli  favorable  circumstances;  the  back-bone 
of  materialism  is  broken."  I  am  very  particular  in 
the  wording  of  this  parting  statement,  and  know  I 
have  got  it  exactly  right,  for  Mr.  Sargent  mentioned 
it  to  me  at  least  four  times  that  I  distinctly  reinein- 
ber. 


X. 

ON   LEANNESS   OP   THOUGHT. 

The  deficiency  is  made  up  by  the  sensuous  proof  of  a 
spiritual  source. 

There  is  much  in  current  Spiritualism  that  violates 
the  taste  of  cultured,  intellectual  people,  at  least 
those  outside  of  our  ranks.  The  phenomenal,  or 
sensuous,  phases  in  themselves  lack  dignity,  especi- 
ally as  in  dealing  with  them  we  are  dealing  with  the 
dead.  The"  intellectual  or  ethical  phases,  "also,  are 
lean  as  mental  efforts,  especially  when  attributed  to 
departed  people  of  celebrity. 

In  making  this  remark  I  have  the  latter  phase 
more  especially  in  my  mind.  The  source  adds  luster 
to  the  sensuous,  irrespective  of  its  quality  of  thought, 
as  being  instructive  or  entertaining.  Crabs,  scorpi- 
ons, goats,  and  fishes  become  sublime  when  hung  up 
as  signs  of  the  zodiac,  says  Emerson  ;  and,  in  like 
manner,  do  table-tippings,  and  grotesque  movements 
of  ponderable  bodies  become  sublime  when  such 
movements  are  signs  of  invisible  intelligence. 

So   does   the  source   fatten   any  leanness  in   the 

intellectual  phase ;  but  the  source  in  the  latter  is  not 

in 


118  SHADOWS. 

so  self-evident  as  is  the  sensuous  class.  There  is 
often  so  little  bread  to  so  much  sack,  when  looked  at 
from  an  outside  standpoint.  So  many  communica- 
tions or  discourses  coming  from  the  vanished  stars  of 
intellect,  or  historic  lights,  that  show  a  shrinkage  of 
ability,  that  it  often  occurs  to  me,  or,  rather,  it  is 
often  said  to  me,  is  the  product  worth  all  the  trouble  ? 
Wading  through  slaughter  to  a  throne,  is  the  throne 
of  the  truth  when  reached  worthy  of  the  struggle  ? 
Is  the  button  of  value  valuable  enough  to  compen- 
sate for  the  handling  of  so  much  scoria,  or  base 
metal  ?  I  think  it  is,  for  it  supplies  a  human  need, 
a  necessity,  and  it  cannot  be  found  outside  of  the 
subject ;  but,  finding  it,  it  casts  a  luster  outside  and 
beyond  itself,  and  brings  to  the  front  and  into  notice 
valuable  lore,  —  truth  that  would  otherwise  remain 
in  the  domain  of  fancj',  fable,  or  disease. 

Experiencing  what  I  have,  and  the  leanness  of 
much  of  that  experience,  I  never  blame  anyone  from 
falling  by  the  way  and  giving  up  the  struggle,  look- 
ing a  little  ways,  then  retreating,  as  Prof.  Tyndall 
did,  and  as  Prof.  Crookes  did  not.  Both  of  these 
savants  were  satisfied,  it  seems,  one  in  one  way,  and 
one  in  the  other. 

I  have  nothing  to  do  with  superficial  examinations 
of  an  affair,  or  with  people  who  presume  they  have 
encompassed  it,  when  I  know  they  have  not.  I  ain 
only  too  thankful  that  my  first  experience  was  such 
an  unmistakable  clincher  as  to  sustain  me,  in  this 
desert  of  thought,  if  one  chooses  to  call  it  so,  until  I 
reached  another  oasis,  and  so  it  has  ever  been. 


ON  LEANNESS  OF  THOUGHT.         11 9 

A  circumstance  in  my  domestic  life,  lasting  for 
nearly  two  years,  coming  at  an  opportune  time, 
seems  to  have  been  all  that  I  needed  to  make  my 
affirmative  convictions  enduring,  even  if  one  chooses 
to  consider  it,  as  I  have  said,  among  the  average 
leanness  of  its  current  thought.  The  momentum 
obtained  from  the  circumstance  referred  to  would 
have  been  sufficient  had  the  "Gates  Ajar"  been  for- 
ever thereafter  closed  to  have  kept  me  constant  in  the 
line  of  its  thought.  Of  this,  more  will  be  said  here- 
after. 

One  cannot  help  noticing  the  manifest  relative 
weakness  of  the  thought  that  comes  from  the  spirit- 
ual Channiugs  and  Parkers,  the  Shakespeares  and 
the  Miltons,  compared  to  their  utterances  when  they 
were  in  the  form.  They  are  often,  however,  master- 
pieces of  good  intellectual  work  for  the  instruments 
uttering  the  thoughts,  who  are  often  people  without 
education.  I  remember  once  a  young  lady,  conspicu- 
ous now  on  the  spiritual  platform,  who  was  present 
at  a  friend's  house,  where  the  parlors  were  filled  with 
intelligent  and  cultured  people,  some  of  them  emi- 
nently so;  and  an  erudite  and  difficult  subject  was 
given  to  this  young  trance-speaker  to  address  them 
upon;  and  it  was  a  remarkable  discourse,  eloquent, 
finished,  and  logical.  That  it  would  have  been  a 
creditable  effort  for  most  anyone,  the  following  col- 
loquy will  show :  — 

C.  C.  Felton,  the  then  professor,  afterwards  presi- 
dent, of  Harvard  College,  who  was  one  of  the  listen- 
ers ou  that  occasion,  congratulated  her  on  the  dis- 


120  SHADOWS. 

course,  and  added,  rather  pleasantly :  "  Now,  own  up 
and  say  it  was  yourself,  and  take  the  credit  that 
would  belong  to  you  as  one  of  the  most  cultivated 
ladies  of  the  country."  She  replied  to  him :  "  I 
would  be  very  glad  to,  if  it  was  only  true ;  but  1  do 
not  claim  it  as  my  effort ;  I  know  it  was  not  myself, 
for  I  know  nothing  of  the  subject."  I  do  not  think 
Prof.  Feltori  believed  her,  but  I  did,  for  I  knew  well 
the  history  or  circumstances  of  her  life. 

For  all  that,  and  similar  inspirational  addresses, 
most  of  the  utterances  made  by  the  departed  intel- 
lectual lights  through  living  organisms,  as  I  have  said, 
show  a  great  falling  off  in  quality,  that,  judging  from 
a  human  standpoint,  the  parties,  if  in  the  form  them 
selves,  would  be  ashamed  of  their  productions,  and 
would  never  have  uttered  them ;  and  from  such  a 
standpoint  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  they  never  did, 
and  allowing  their  thought  to  partake  of  the  channel, 
the  brain  of  the  medium  being  used  by  such  a  spirit 
with  its  deficiencies,  so  as  to  convey  it  in  bad  gram- 
mar and  lack  of  characteristic  finish,  even  if  the 
thought  be  in  harmony,  such  a  spirit  would  hardly 
allow  his  thought  to  go  abroad  in  such  an  ill  dress. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  dictating  spirit  can  only 
know  it  as  he  expresses  it,  presuming  it  issues  into 
mortal  hearing  as  he  gives  it  out,  not  perceiving  its 
outcome  in  the  mundane  sphere.  This  can  hardly  be 
the  case,  though  it  is  possible.  Of  course  there  are 
grand  and  eminent  exceptions  to  this  watering  of 
thought,  but  enough  of  the  deficiencies  are  noticeable 
to  make  the  claim  a  subject  of  criticism,  especially 


ON   LEANNESS   OF   THOUGHT.  121 

among  those  who  view  it  superficially,  or  from  the 
outside,  and  have  never  looked  into  the  philosophy  or 
the  dynamics  of  the  subject  only  as  a  passing  affair. 
I  have  spoken  of  a  domestic  circumstance.  Now, 
to  be  more  explicit,  one  of  the  most  fruitful  periods 
of  my  life,  in  connection  with  this  subject,  was  the 
residence  of  a  young  woman  in  my  house  for  a  long 
period  as  a  wet-nurse  for  our  youngest  child.  She 
proved  to  be  the  best  medium  I  ever  met.  This  was 
nearly  a  score  of  years  ago.  She  did  not  live  long 
after  her  time  was  over  with  us.  I  hardly  think  I 
appreciated  as  I  ought  this  remarkable  privilege  that 
I  enjoyed.  I  had  not  the  experience  then  that  I  have 
had  since,  but  I  have  many  times  been  led  to  appre- 
ciate the  poetic  truth,  — 

"That  blessings  brighten  as  they  take  their  flight." 

This  young  woman  was  a  Catholic ;  did  not  know 
she  was  a  medium.  When  I  discovered  the  manifes- 
tations, she  did  not,  in  her  ignorance,  know  what 
Spiritualism  meant.  She  had  almost  every  phase  of 
the  phenomena, —  the  movement  of  ponderable  bodies 
without  physical  contact,  raps  on  tables,  chairs,  and 
walls,  at  a  distance  or  near ;  and,  by  her  aid,  all  the 
old  familiar  names  of  departed  friends,  relations,  and 
ancestors  announced  themselves,  and  often  proved, 
in  a  remarkable  manner,  their  identity.  I  often  got 
the  full  names  of  people,  and  circumstances  that  I 
had  to  verify,  proving  her  source  of  information  to 
be  both  authentic,  and  beyond  her  knowledge  and 
mine  also  until  I  had  hunted  up  the  matter. 


122  SHADOWS. 

We  had  not  then  reached  in  the  history  of  Spirit- 
ualism the  phase  of  materialization ;  I  have  no  doubt 
she  would  have  had  that  power  also,  if  she  had  lived 
longer.  She  had  the  feature  of  materialization  in  its 
early  type  of  that  time,  more  apparent  from  the  sense 
of  touch  than  of  sight.  For  instance  :  In  a  perfectly 
light  room,  perhaps  of  a  sunny  afternoon,  seated 
around  a  small,  square  table,  wife  and  I,  vis-a-vis, 
this  young  woman  on  the  side  between  us,  sometimes 
a  fourth  person  would  occupy  the  other  vacant  side, 
but  usually  it  was  we  three,  our  six  hands  were  in 
sight  flat  on  the  table,  then  one  of  the  hands  being 
put  under  the  table,  leaving  the  other  live  hands 
before  us  in  sight.  The  hand  under  the  table  could 
feel  invisible  hands,  sensible  to  the  touch,  and  intelli- 
gent in  their  manipulations.  This  was  to  us  a  new 
and  very  strange  manifestation. 

There  was  no  deception  about  it,  and  could  not 
be,  under  the  circumstances.  They  improved  and 
grew  more  distinct,  even  demonstrative,  as  we  got 
interested  in  them'.  It  was  worthy  of  notice  that 
some  people  who  might  make  the  fourth  party  were 
obstacles  to  the  phenomenon.  I  certainly  did  not 
understand  it,  for  it  certainly  was  not  due  to  any 
skeptical  element  in  the  new  comer.  Sometimes  the 
party  would  be  a  Spiritualist  who  was  the  disturbing 
element,  and  by  no  means  positive  or  mentally 
opposed,  rather  hoped  for,  and  came  expecting  suc- 
cess, while  sometimes  the  fourth  party  would  not  be  a 
Spiritualist,  had  no  faith  in  the  belief,  and  we  found 
no  interruption  with  him  to  the  manifestations. 


ON  LEANNESS  OF  THOUGHT.        123 

This,  certainly,  shows  that  the  obstacle  is  not  a 
mental  one,  and,  whatever  it  is,  it  seems  to  be  con- 
stitutional,—  a  non-conducting  element  in  the  per- 
son. But  I  will  not  enlarge  upon  that  point  here ; 
but,  it  being  an  unmistakable  fact,  it  will  show  that 
the  later  and  more  extended  phase  of  full-form  mate- 
rializations, the  character  of  which  good  people  differ, 
may  be  affected  for  better  or  worse  by  the  persons 
constituting  the  circle. 

I  will  close  this  chapter  by  describing  some  of  my 
our  experiences  in  this  phase  ;  that  is,  where  I  put  my 
hand  under  the  table,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and 
the  remaining  five  hands  being  in  sight  on  the  table. 
I  often  had  more  than  touches,  or  manipulations ;  I 
very  often  grasped  what  seemed  a  human  hand,  and 
certainly  was  one,  and  certainly  it  was  not  the  hand 
of  a  mortal  in  the  form,  nor  a  dummy.  It  was,  appar- 
ently, flesh  and  blood  and  bones,  and  felt  like  any- 
body's or  human  hand. 

These  hands  at  different  times  were  of  different 
sizes  and  forms.  Sometimes  a  child's  hand,  some- 
times, by  signification,  it  was  a  sister's  hand,  or  a 
grandmother's.  We  all  had  this  experience  many 
times,  I  ought  to  say,  myself,  hundreds  of  times. 
My  sister,  who  did  much  sewing  when  she  was  in  the 
form,  when  the  mysterious  hand  claimed  to  be  hers, 
and  tried  to  have  me  identify  it,  she  allowed  me  to 
feel  the  end  of  her  finger,  the  roughness  of  the  cuti- 
cle that  much  sewing  caused  was  perceptible  and 
recognizable.  I  felt  also  the  ring  on  her  finger,  and 
as  far  as  touch. without  sight  could  tell,  it  seemed  like 


124  SHADOWS. 

her  ring ;  but  her  ring  then  was  owned  by  another 
party  in  another  State,  so  it  must  have  been  evolved 
out  of  the  circumambient  air  for  the  occasion,  and 
the  same,  of  course,  of  the  hand  itself,  that  is  mate- 
rialized. 

One  thing  I  will  notice.  No  matter  how  firm  a 
grip  I  might  have  had,  I  could  never  draw  this  spirit 
hand  out  into  the  light  so  that  I  could  have  occular 
proof  as  well  as  proof  by  touch  and  manipulation.  I 
would  try  sometimes  to  coax  it  out  from  under  the 
table,  and  the  hand  seemed  to  make  no  objection,  but 
it  never  would  come  ;  the  grip  would  limber,  the  hand 
lose  its  density,  and  before  it  reached  in  my  hand  the 
end  of  the  table  for  optical  demonstration,  I  held 
nothing, —  it  had  dissolved,  so  it  never  was  an  object 
of  sight,  though  it  was  tangibly  manifest. 

I  will  have  occasion  to  speak  again  of  some  experi- 
ences with  this  home-medium  in  other  illustrations, 
so  I  will  leave  this  matter  here,  having  said  sufficient 
for  the  purposes  of  this  chapter,  and  certainly  com- 
pensates for  any  leanness  of  thought  in  some  of  the 
inspired  utterances  referred  to  ;  for  who  will  not  say 
that  the  sensuous  touch  of  a  "vanished  hand  "  exter- 
nally, that  is  real  in  a  material  sense,  is  not  more 
eloquent  than  words,  and  by  the  side  of  which  the 
highest  reaches  of  eloquence  become  insignificant 
and  tame? 


XI. 

PKO-SPIKITUALISM. 

An   article  written  for,  and  published   in,  "  The 
Radical." 

When  The  Radical,  a  bright  magazine,  was  alive,  I 
was  asked  by  its  editor  to  write  an  article  for  it  on 
modern  Spiritualism.  That  showed  the  liberality  of 
that  able,  "  free  religious  "  periodical,  for  the  subject 
then  was  more  in  literary  eclipse  than  it  is  now, 
though  it  is  not  yet  out  of  the  Philistinian  domain. 

As  this  article  did  not  reach  the  eye  of  many 
Spiritualists,  not  being  written  for  them,  I  have 
thought,  though  it  was  written  nearly  a  decade  ago, 
that  I  would  copy  it  from  that  magazine  for  one  of 
the  chapters  of  this  book.  It  is  not  exactly  as  I 
would  have  written  it  today,  but  much  of  it  is  worth 
perusal,  and  in  some  form  should  be  herein  presented, 
more,  perhaps,  for  illustration  of  some  of  the  other 
chapters  of  this  book  than  for  information.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  article  to  which  I  have  referred  :  — 

Modern  Spiritualism  addresses  itself  emphatically 
to  the  senses,  differing  fundamentally  from  all  forms 
of  religion  in  that  respect,  unless  Roman  Christianity 


125 


126  SHADOWS. 

be  an  exception.  That,  to  be  sure,  addresses  the 
senses,  but  only  to  the  ignorant ;  the  intelligent  per- 
ceive significations  underlying  the  symbols ;  but  then 
the  significations,  becoming  definite  in  such  minds, 
are  evangelical, —  which  means  unscientific,  hence 
anti-rational.  So,  I  repeat,  it  differs  from  all  other 
forms  of  religion  on  that  point.  Is  it  in  confiict  or  in 
harmony  with  the  inner  sense  or  soul  deep,  which  no 
mental  plummet  has  ever  yet  sounded;  which  is 
marked  on  the  oldest  charts  "  no  bottom ; "  and 
which,  with  all  the  additions  of  later  or  modern 
explorers,  is  still  marked  "  no  bottom  ?  "  Perhaps 
here  is  not  the  time  or  place  to  answer  that  question, 
only  to  think  of  it. 

Of  all  ages,  this  is  the  inductive  or  practical  age ; 
and  we  are  a  people  marked  with  inductive  or  prac- 
tical tendencies.  Dealing  with  facts  is  always  popu- 
lar, and  has  on  its  side  the  multitude,  who  observe 
rather  than  think,  and,  of  course,  are  not  inclined  to 
listen  to  the  more  subtle  teachings  of  the  prophets, 
or  those  who  live  before  their  time, —  that  is,  those 
who  reason  from  intuitions  or  principles  downward 
or  outward  to  facts.  Henry  Thomas  Buckle  says : 
a Actions,  facts,  external  manifestations  of  every 
kind,  often  triumph  for  awhile  ;  but  it  is  the  progress 
of  ideas  which  ultimately  determines  the  progress  of 
the  world."  I  think  few  will  dispute  what  is  stated 
here  on  this  point :  and  it  reduces  itself  to  this,  viz., 
the  observers  are  many,  and  the  thinkers  are  few, 
and  ultimately  the  thinkers  rule  the  world. 

Modern   Spiritualism,  its  facts  or  phenomena,  is 


PUG-SPIRITUALISM.  127 

here,  in  triumph,  "for  awhile,"  if  you  choose.  It 
may  be  here  by  virtue  of  the  demand  which  the  age 
has  for  facts,  as  a  taste  for  dreams  increases  the  crop 
of  dreamers.  It  may  be  here  to  meet  a  want  once 
supplied  by  faith,  —  that  faith  which  science  and 
reason  (that  is,  rationalism)  have  killed.  The  logic 
of  deduction  from  established  principles,  so  called,  is 
adverse  to  the  claims  of  modern  Spiritualism.  The 
logic  of  induction  has  had  no  place  in  this  connec- 
tion. There  have  been  heretofore  no  facts.  The 
dead  men  were  dead,  and  induction  is  inapplicable  to 
and  has  no  connection  with  theology  ;  that  is  born  of 
revelation,  assumed.  Therefore  just  as  the  logic  of 
theology  was  adverse  to  the  fact  that  the  earth  was 
a  sphere,  so  is  theology  and  all  deductions  from  pre- 
conceived notions,  however  liberal  in  statement, 
adverse  to  the  claim  made  by  modern  Spiritualism. 
The  world  demonstrated  to  be  a  sphere,  there  was 
revolution  in  the  world  of  mind  as  well  as  in  the 
world  of  matter.  Demonstrate  as  clearly  this  fact, 
—  or,  rather,  the  claim  based  on  the  fact, —  then 
behold  another  revolution.  That  point  no  one  will 
dispute.  But  will  it  be  demonstrated  ?  What  are 
the  probabilities?  The  minds  that  reason  from  estab- 
lished principles  (or  notions  true  or  false),  or,  to  be 
more  definite,  a  man  who  has  the  idea  that  heaven  is 
more  or  less  a  church-gathering,  where  dignity  and 
greatness  have  no  light  dressing  of  frivolity,  but  the 
redeemed  u  are  as  the  angels  in  heaven,"  all  human 
weaknesses  having  been  left  in  the  grave,  and  the 
free  spirit,  or  the  souls  of  men,  all  great,  good,  and 


128  SHADOWS. 

perfect, —  in  a  word,  a  sort  of  rationalized  heaven 
with  some  or  all  the  ancient  evangelical  features, — 
such  will  answer,  and,  as  far  as  heard  from,  do,  that 
the  fact  will  not  be  demonstrated  as  a  truth,  and 
never  ought  to  be :  it  would  be  a  libel  upon  a  sensi- 
ble conception  of  heaven,  the  dwelling-place  of  the 
Infinite,  and  the  resting-place  for  the  weary  pilgrims 
of  earth. 

I  am  aware  I  have  no  authority  for  reconstructing 
anyone's  notion  of  heaven  or  its  inhabitants,  the 
abode  either  of  the  blessed  or  the  disembodied ;  but, 
laying  aside  the  "Planchette"  authority,  I  have  as 
much  an  anyone ;  and  that,  expressed  by  a  symbol, 
is  0.  That  means,  on  this  subject,  assuming,  for  the 
moment,  it  is  wholly  devoid  of  fact,  and  wholly  in  the 
domain  of  faith,  that  the  thinker  or  the  philosopher 
has  no  right  to  assume  what  the  facts  or  the  phenom- 
ena ought  to  be  from  logical  inferences,  and,  if  antag- 
onistic to  his  idea,  reject  on  the  ground  of  absurdity 
or  triviality, —  in  other  words,  judge  before  a  hear- 
ing. We  came  from  monkeys  says  Charles  Darwin. 
We  may  go  back  at  death  to  first  principles,  or  be 
monkeys  again.  No  inference  can  possibly  make  us 
fear  such  a  destiny ;  but  no  one  can  say  it  is  not  so ; 
and,  if  investigations  should  demonstrate  that  fact, 
it  is  scientific  to  follow  where  the  facts  lead,  and  it 
is  unscientific  and  irrational  to  reject  phenomena, 
trivial  or  silly,  which,  existing,  exist  for  some  pur- 
pose, no  matter  what.  We  shall  never  know  till  we 
study  it ;  and,  in  this  connection,  no  matter  the  con- 
sequences to  our  hopes,  our  expectations  or  our 


PRO-SPIRITUALISM:.  129 

vanity.  "Where  ignorance  is  bliss,  't  is  folly  to  be 
wise,"  may  be  evangelical :  it  is  by  no  means  rational. 

I  know  of  no  subject  so  deserving  of  careful,  ten- 
der, and  critical  attention  as  this  one,  whether  in 
reference  to  its  peculiar  associations  with  our  destiny 
or  in  reference  to  its  wide-spreading  influence  as 
manifested  in  the  multitude  of  its  adherents.  In  a 
spirit  of  inquiry,  then,  not  of  dogmatism,  let  us  look 
at  the  subject.  I  do  so,  hoping  it  to  be  true ;  but 
not  prejudiced,  I  think,  by  that  hope.  From  a  great 
multitude  of  facts,  let  me  select  one,  for  a  starting- 
point,  from  my  own  experience.  I  do  not  qualify 
the  word :  I  mean  fact.  This  detailed  statement  will 
be  an  episode  in  the  argument,  but  it  seems  to  be 
required  as  an  aid  or  setting  to  the  points  I  have  in 
view.  Here  is  the  statement :  — 

Ellen  was  for  many  years  a  domestic  in  our  family. 
Ann  was  a  wet-nurse  for  our  baby.  Both  were  Irish 
and  Catholics.  Ellen  was  rather  old,  unmarried, 
steady,  and  faithful.  Ann,  the  nurse,  was  a  widow 
of  about  twenty, —  ignorant,  careless,  and  lively. 
There  had  been,  in  the  month  or  two  that  they  had 
lived  together  with  us,  several  quarrels  between 
them ;  one  quite  serious,  where  it  was  necessary  for 
me  to  interfere.  Ann  was  accused  by  Ellen  of  pull- 
ing the  kitchen  table  from  her  with  her  foot  while 
kneading  bread  on  it ;  had  done  it,  or  similar  pranks, 
many  times.  Ann  said  she  did  not,  and  Ellen  said 
she  did;  which  led  to  a  "rolling-pin"  fight.  And, 
without  going  into  details  too  minutely,  I  had  got  to 
part  with  a  healthy  nurse  or  a  faithful  girl.  A  nurse, 


130  SHADOWS. 

being  a  mother  by  proxy  for  the  time,  is  mistress  in 
the  house.  One  cannot  see  his  baby  suffer.  So  we 
make  sacrifices,  "hang  our  harps  upon  the  willows 
when  we  remember  Zion,"  and  pray  for  the  weaniug- 
time  and  freedom.  Had  it  not  been  for  her  office, 
Ann  would  have  been  turned  away  without  question, 
and  at  once.  As  it  was,  I  conciliated  Ellen,  and 
compelled  a  truce. 

In  a  short  time,  the  same  thing  occurred  up  stairs. 
The  light-stand  seemed  to  be  pulled  away  towards 
Ann.  She  was  scolded  by  the  mistress.  Ann  denied 
it,  and  in  the  plain  evidence  of  the  fact ;  for,  while 
scolding,  the  table  jumped.  The  secret  was  out : 
Ann  was  a  medium.  This  girl  did  not  know  what 
"medium"  signified;  and  had  never  heard  of  the 
word  Spiritualism,  and  did  not  know  its  meaning  or 
its  associations.  We  visited  the  kitchen.  The  table 
moved  a  foot  towards  her,  untouched.  The  whole 
matter  was  explained.  There  had  been  no  lies  told. 
As  stated,  we  would  have  discharged,  as  a  disturber 
and  a  liar,  on  positive  evidence,  and  injured  an  inno- 
cent girl ;  in  my  ignorance,  would  have  done  an 
injustice.  May  not  incarnated  wisdom,  higher  up, 
be  doing  injustice  now  to  some  for  their  honest  con- 
clusions on  this  subject,  that  a  more  careful  investi- 
gation might  at  least  modify? 

This  matter  was  lengthily  and  critically  examined 
under  very  favorable  circumstances.  The  details  are 
hardly  needed  here  for  my  purpose.  Ann's  husband 
and  father  assumed  to  be  the  operators  at  the  spirit 
end  of  the  lines :  and,  through  her,  I  got  communi- 


mO-SPIRITUALISM.  131 

cations  from  many  persons  and  relatives  ;  often  some- 
times in  reference  to  furniture  and  pictures  they 
once  owned,  given  for  tests,  the  details  of  which  this 
chance  girl  could  know  nothing  of;  many  unknown 
to  myself,  that  inquiry  proved  to  be  true.  After 
going  to  confession,  she  refused  to  sit  any  more  ;  said 
her  priest  forbade  it.  He  told  her  the  spirit  was  her 
father,  etc. ;  but  she  must  not  sit  any  more.  It  was 
wicked,  and  we  were  Protestants.  The  priest,  then, 
believed  in  the  fact,  it  seemed. 

The  explanation  of  his  objection  did  not  seem  to 
be  very  intelligible  or  reasonable  ;  but  I  make  allow- 
ances for  the  medium,  in  mundane  matters,  just  as  I 
would  one  in  spiritual.  Persuasion  overcame  her 
objections.  I  asked  her  if  she  still  loved  her  father 
and  husband  (who  were  still  Catholics  on  the  other 
side).  She  did,  and  she  believed  with  the  priest, 
that  it  was  her  father  arid  her  husband,  as  the  com- 
munication claimed.  "Then,"  said  I,  "suppose  we 
ask  them  ?  "  If  Ann  had  any  inclination  in  the  mat- 
ter, it  was  that  they  would  say  :  "  Mind  the  priest." 
Their  reply  was :  "  You  do  perfectly  right  to  sit ; 
and  we  like  it,  too,  and  we  love  you." 

As  the  details  of  this  or  any  of  the  phenomena  is 
not  the  object  of  this  communication,  I  will  leave 
what  I  have  inserted  here  as  an  episode,  and  say  that 
this  matter  seems  determined  to  be  heard,  and  will 
not  down  at  anyone's  bidding.  The -scientific  jour- 
nals, hitting  the  right  point,  say:  "What  is  Plan- 
chette?"  I  do  not  expect  science,  as  science,  to 
answer.  Science  deals  with  matter.  When  a  great 


132  SHADOWS. 

question  is  asked  seriously,  in  the  course  of  time  the 
interpreter  will  be  born.  He  is  as  likely  to  be  a  car- 
penter's son  as  a  Gamaliel;  rather  more  so,  if  any  con- 
clusions for  the  future  can  be  gathered  from  past  expe- 
rience :  the  author  of  "  Ecce  Homo "  says  the  world 
is  grandly  debtor  to  lowly  cradles,  which  is  a  truth. 

An  anti-Spiritualist,  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  has 
been  in  the  front,  and  seen  the  phenomena.  Now, 
there  is  something  in  it,  it  has  come  to  me,  says  he. 
Professors  explain  it.  They  still  neglect  the  unclean 
thing,  saying  to  this  writer:  "Watch  it  carefully:  you 
are  deceived."  He  is  snubbed;  he,  who  is  religious 
and  respectable,  not  one  of  those  Spiritualists.  He 
forgets  it  is  not  the  man  that  makes  the  matter 
worthy  of  notice :  it  is  the  matter  that  degrades  the 
man,  as  yet.  This  late  writer  tells  his  story  outside 
of  the  ring  of  fools.  No  more  a  fact  for  that ;  but  it 
shows  extension,  pressing  for  expression  on  the  line 
of  least  resistance.  It  has  got  beyond  the  deluded  ; 
and,  as  the  volume  expands,  the  fracture  extends 
through  this  late  and  tougher  material.  If  this  sub- 
ject is  mythical,  we  shall  know  it  in  the  next  age  if 
not  in  this.  In  the  meantime,  let  us  soberly  treat  it. 
Spiritualism  is  the  only  form  of  religion  that  Amer- 
ica has  yet  produced  ;  (please  not  suggest  Mormon- 
ism  in  this  connection,  —  that  de  facto  is  not  con- 
lined  to  Utah  or  America) ;  and,  aside  from  its 
super-mundane  claims,  is,  as  to  its  ethics,  just  what  a 
free  people,  who,  in  flowering  out,  produced  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  might  suppose  to  develop 
as  a  religion.  It  is  essentially  independence,  liberty, 


PRO-SPIRITUALISM.  133 

and  progress,  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  last  circle 
of  the  Protestant  wave, —  Parkerism,  or  free  religion; 
just  what  The  Radical  represents  all  but  the  one  fact, 
that  disembodied  Theodore  Parker  not  only  lives, 

but  speaks  to  and  through  mortals 

Humanity  grows ;  and  in  this  age  of  facts,  when 
everything  is  met  and  handled  in  the  inductive  or 
analytic  spirit,  which  is  the  logical  condition  of 
human  progress,  I  am  led  to  ask  what  the  heart- 
tendrils  will  reach  hold  of  and  entwine  to  support 
this  human  vine  ?  I  have  the  many  in  my  mind,  not 
the  richly  endowed  few,  wealth  of  thought.  Can 
anyone  believe  that  God  has  left  us  without  a 
witness,  not  of  himself,  that  evidence  is  every- 
where, but  of  his  justice  ?  It  is  nowhere  in  material 
philosophy.  I  go,  says  Faith;  but  I  will  send  the 
Comforter,  and  it  will  teach  you  all  things.  It  must 
needs  be  that  I,  Faith,  go.  If  I  go  not,  the  Com- 
forter will  not  come.  In  the  midst  of  rationalism,  I 
am  looking  for  what  it  has  not  in  itself, —  the  Com- 
forter. Has  God  left  us  without  the  witness?  Mr. 
Weiss  has  it.  He  feels  his  immortality.  That  satis- 
fies him:  he  needs  no  tables  to  tip  for  him.  He  gave 
Theodore  Parker  the  witness.  He  was  sure  of  the 
other  world  :  this  was  the  one  he  doubted.  But  why 
give  to  Weiss  and  Frothinghain  and  Parker  and  Bar- 
tol,  and  not  the  many  like  this  writer?  Must  the 
many  take  it  on  trust?  Because  a  few  prophets 
have  the  evidence,  must  the  rest  have  only  faith? 
Rationalism  says :  No  authority  but  truth.  Whose 
truth?  Why  not  Calvin's  as  well  as  Parker's? 


134  SHADOWS. 

Will  God  take  away,  by  the  law  of  progress, 
almost  universal  faith,  and  leave  me  without  a  ray 
of  hope  ?  Because  Weiss  &  Co.  are  fed  with  their 
own  deductions,  and  thrive  by  it,  must  I  starve? 
B.ecause  Weiss's  clover  will  not  feed  me,  must  I  fall 
back  on  worms?  In  the  midst  of  his  satisfying 
clover,  must  Elijah  starve  because  there  are  no 
ravens  ? 

It  would  seem  as  though  the  only  witness  that  the 
age  demands,  or  can  satisfy  it,  is  a  voice  from  the 
tomb.  Here  are  phenomena  that  answer  that  de- 
mand in  its  claims.  True,  it  may  be  an  hallucina- 
tion. For  reasons  already  mentioned, —  its  increas- 
ing influence,  and  its  moral  effect, —  is  not  its  par- 
ticular fact  worthy  of  attention  ?  Is  there  any  reason 
why,  in  writing  in  its  defense,  I  should  lose  some- 
thing of  my  moral  and  intellectual  position,  unless  I 
weave  into  the  structure  of  my  communication  the 
respectable  fact  or  apology  that  the  writer  is  not  a 
believer  in  the  spiritual  explanation  of  these  phe- 
nomena? He  makes  in  this  instance  no  such  excuse. 

Now,  here  is  the  fact  desired, —  if  it  be  a  fact.  If 
it  be  the  once  dead  speaking,  has  there  been  so 
important  a  question  ever  considered?  Shall  we 
reject  it  because  it  keeps  company  with  Publicans 
and  sinners?  Shall  we  refuse  to  wash  and  be  clean 
because  the  river  is  simply  Jordan  ?  Shall  we  say  : 
"What  manner  of  departed  spirits  are  these  that  play 
on  liddles,  and  dance  tables ;  that  rap  loud  and  soft 
on  tables,  walls,  and  doors?"  Shall  we  say  :  "Non- 
sense ! "  while  they  every  time  say :  "  I  am  one  of 


PRO-SPIRITUALISM.  13o 

thy  brethren,  the  prophets  "  ?  Why,  it  violates  all  raj- 
ideas  of  respect  for  the  departed,  and  their  condition. 
"  How  are  the  mighty  fallen ! "  Shades  of  great 
Franklin !  you  are  in  twenty  places  at  the  same 
time,  and  all  unknown  to  each  other.  He  must  be  a 
double-header.  Oh,  no  !  foolish  dream  !  —  I  had 
rather  be  without  the  proof,  the  sweet  evidence  of 
life  beyond  the  vale,  if  such  is  to  be  the  end  of  all 
my  greatness. 

In  this  connection,  bear  in  mind,  there  have  been 
more  atheists  and  infidels  converted  from  their  mate- 
rialism to  a  belief  in  the  soul's  continued  existence 
than  by  all  the  religious  and  rational  logic  during 
the  same  time.  The  great  number,  among  whom  is 
this  writer,  who  have  by  these  puerile  phenomena, 
perceiving  the  underlying  truth  irrespective  of  its 
details  and  associations,  who  have  passed  from  dark- 
ness to  light  and  hope,  is  a  fact  or  a  good  so  import- 
ant as  should  command  a  tender  regard  for  it,  set  as 
it  is  so  poorly.  Pebbles  beco'me  jewels  sometimes  by 
their  setting.  Here  may  be  a  jewel  spoiled  by  its 
setting.  Common  sense  (which  is  vulgar  for  ration- 
alism) says:  "Prove  it  worthless,  or  reset  it." 

It  may  be  stated  here,  and  truly,  that  Spiritualists 
do  not  claim  for  it  admission  as  a  demonstrated  truth, 
to  be  universally  accepted,  unchallenged.  They,  of 
all  people,  say :  "Examine  for  yourselves,  and  believe 
or  reject  as  your  conviction  dictates.''  There  may 
be,  and  probably  is,  more  error  than  truth  in  it. 
What  venerated  institution  but  must  make  the  same 
confession?  Who  would  except  the  church  on  this 


136  SHADOWS. 

point?  Speaking  for  myself,  the  communication  of 
disembodied  spirits  with  mortals  is  a  demonstrated 
truth.  I  make  this  statement  with  some  little  crit- 
ical knowledge  of  mental  phenomena,  or  what  is 
called  the  psychical  side  of  life.  A  less  cautious  per- 
son, on  the  same  evidence,  might  also  speak  equally 
strong  of  identity.  The  identity  of  individual  spirits 
is  by  no  means  so  established,  even  in  a  Spiritualist's 
mind,  as  that  more  indefinite  one  of  disembodied 
intelligence.  In  a  word  (I  am  speaking  for  no  one 
but  myself  now),  there  is  no  positive  proof  that 
Theodore  Parker  ever  spoke  to  or  through  a  mortal. 
The  chances  favor  the  assumption  that  he  may  have 
done  so,  even  if  the  result  be  silly, — de-Parkerized 
by  the  process.  But  that  a  disembodied  spirit,  claim- 
ing to  be  Theodore  Parker,  or  was  once  some  special 
dweller  of  earth,  has  communicated  through  mortals, 
is  to  me  no  more  a  matter  of  doubt  than  that  a  man 
lives  in  Europe  claiming  to  be  Victor  Hugo.  The 
identity  of  the  living  is  easy  of  demonstration ;  of 
the  other,  not  so  easy. 

The  obstacle  is  not  in  the  quality  of  thought 
offered  as  Theodore  Parker's.  We  do  not  know  how 
spirit  or  mind  controls  matter,  only  that,  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  it  does ;  and  we  know,  further,  that 
matter  controls  spirit  also ;  that  intemperance  in  eat- 
ing may  produce  a  condition  of  body,  or  rather  of 
mind,  incapacitating  it  for  its  master-pieces;  and 
Homer  nods,  or  becomes  Homer  and  water,  even  in 
the  form,  before  he  goes  to  the  spirit  life.  But  we 
would  assume,  or  some  would,  that  we  know  all  the 


PRO-SPIRITUALISM.  137 

conditions  of  transit  and  association,  between  spirit 
and  mortal  life,  when  we  know  comparatively  noth- 
ing of  the  connection  between  out  own  souls  and 
bodies.  Shall  we  say,  then,  there  is  nothing  prac- 
tical in  it?  —  all  unreliable?  Let  it  be  so.  That  is 
another  part  of  the  subject.  No  thoughtful  person 
will  reject  the  fundamental  fact,  if  lie  knows  it  to  be 
a  fact,  because  all  we  expected  or  hoped  for  is  not 
available.  Perhaps  as  yet  there  is  not  enough  of  the 
curve  given  us  to  measure  the  circle ;  and  in  time 
we  may  be  qualified. 

With  all  the  crudities  in  connection  with  this  sub- 
ject, I  venture  the  prophecy  that  this  fact,  being 
fundamentally  a  truth,  has  come  to  stay ;  and  that 
this  generation  shall  not  pass  away  before  the  church 
as  a  general  thing  will  adopt  it,  and  it  will  be  the 
warm  blood  that  will  give  it  life.  Thus  not  only 
will  it  be  a  feature,  but  it  will  be  claimed  as  always 
having  been  a  feature, —  latent  for  awhile,  having 
been  mixed  up  with  superstition  ;  but  the  old  remem- 
brances will  be  heated  red-hot  again,  and  the  image 
and  superscription  be  made  in  its  reproduction  to 
bear  testimony  not  only  to  the  fact,  but  to  its  anti- 
quity also.  And  thus  again  a  stone  which  the  build- 
ers rejected  will  have  become  the  head  of  the  corner. 


XII. 

HOME  MANIFESTATIONS. 

Giving  a  brief  account  of  phenomena  which  are  both 
"  bottom  facts  "  and  "  startling  facts" 

I  had  been  a  Spiritualist  four  or  tive  years  when 
the  opportunity  opened  to  me  of  which  I  have 
spoken  in  a  previous  chapter.  It  seems  to  me  now 
that  the  circumstance  was  a  providential  one  (using 
the  word,  not  in  any  divine  sense,  but  only  in  a 
modern  spiritual  one,  which  is  all  the  providence  I 
know  anything  about),  that  this  young  woman  should 
have  proved  a  sort  of  "  gates  ajar  "  to  me. 

The  article  from  The  Radical,  in  the  last  chapter, 
refers  to  her  in  an  illustrative  way,  but  I  think  I  had 
better  briefly  speak  of  her  again,  having  some  circum- 
stances to  relate  in  connection  with  her  that  are  of 
marked  importance,  if  there  be  any  importance  in 
argument  or  experiences. 

When  there  had  been  trouble  in  the  kitchen  be- 
tween Ann  (the  name  of  the  nurse)  and  the  domestic, 
it  was  presumed  there  had  been  mischief  and  lying 
of  some  kind,  but  the  nurse  held  the  fort,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  for  the  life  and  health  of  the  baby  were 

138 


HOME  MANIFESTATIONS.  139 

in  her  hands.  A  week  or  two  after  this  affair,  the 
table  in  the  sitting-room,  at  which  my  wife  and  Ann 
were  sitting  and  sewing,  showed  a  disposition  to 
be  self-active.  It  actually  jumped  and  almost  upset 
the  lamp  that  was  on  it,  and  would  had  there  not 
been  intelligence  in  the  movement. 

My  wife  said  to  Ann  :  "  Be  careful  and  not  hit  the 
table,  you  will  set  us  on  lire."  "  I  did  not  do  it," 
said  she,  and  the  table  jumped  again, —  markedly  so, 

—  and  both  looked  at  each  other.     "  Did  you  not  do 
that  ?  "  wife  said ;  and  Ann  replied :  "  No,  inarm,  I 
did  not."     Wife    felt  uneasy,  and   called  up  Ellen 
from  the  kitchen,  who  was  told  what  had  happened ; 
and   the  table,  as  if  hearing  them    talk,  began  its 
antics  again,  no  one  touching  it.     Ellen  saying  to  it : 
"  Stop ! "   but   it  jumped   the    more,  and   all   three 
women  were  surprised  and  frightened.     Ellen  then 
said,  looking  at  it  firmly  :  "  In  Christ's  name,  stop  !  " 

—  making  the  sign  of  a  cross  with  her  finger,  and  it 
stopped,  and  no  further  movement  was  noticed. 

This  was  in  the  evening.  When  I  got  home,  which 
was  soon  after,  I  was  told  the  circumstances,  and  I 
said  to  Ann  that  she  must  be  a  medium,  and  asked 
her  to  sit  down  with  me  at  the  table ;  and  then,  lay- 
ing our  hands  on  it,  I  said,  if  there  were  any  spirits 
present  let  us  know  it  in  some  way  ;  and,  in  response, 
in  a  few  seconds  there  was  a  mild  movement,  also 
raps;  and,  asking  who  it  was,  and  using  the  alpha- 
bet, the  name  of  a  relative  was  spelled  out ;  and  as 
soon  as  I  recognized  and  mentioned  the  name,  the 


140  SHADOWS. 

table  signified  its  satisfaction  with  applause,  if  mov- 
ing rapidly  may  be  called  applause. 

I  will  not  inflict  upon  the  reader  any  lengthy 
details  of  what  this  beginning  led  to,  but  will  say  I 
had  in  my  two  years'  experience  all  the  evidence 
that  anyone  could  desire,  that  this  table,  or  the  invisi- 
bles manifesting  through  it,  knew  a  great  deal  that 
this  girl  could  not  have  known,  and  many  things  of 
a  traditional  character  from  some  of  my  departed 
friends  that  I  had  myself  to  verify.  The  point  to 
mention  now  is  about  that  row,  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  which  occurred  in  the  kitchen  a  short  time 
before. 

We  then  went  into  the  kitchen.  Ann  took  her 
place  at  the  end  of  the  table,  where  she  was  at  the 
time  spoken  of.  Ellen,  the  other  girl,  stood  in  front 
of  it,  resting  her  hands  on  it  as  if  the  bread-board 
was  before  her ;  and  I  said :  "  I  wish,  if  there  are  any 
spirits  here,  they  would  move  the  table ; "  and  it 
startled  us  by  its  jumping  a  foot.  The  whole  matter 
explained  itself.  Ann  did  not  shove  the  table  at  the 
time  referred  to.  So,  when  she  said  to  Ellen  :  "  She 
did  n't,"  she  did  not  lie,  as  Ellen  thought  she  did. 
The  rumpus  was  explained,  and  the  discovery  and 
the  succeeding  conveniences  of  protracted  manifesta- 
tions are  among  the  most  interesting  circumstances 
in  my  life,  as  I  have  already  said. 

I  understand  the  matter  now  better  than  I  did 
then.  This  occurred  during  my  first  decade  in  my 
connection  with  Spiritualism.  I  am  now  near  the  end 
of  my  third  decade.  It  is  possible  my  remarkable 


HOME  MANIFESTATIONS.  141 

opportunities  have  saved  me  in  the  line  so  as  to  see 
a  third  decade.  When  these  home  manifestations 
came  to  me  it  lowered  my  estimation  of  the  spirit 
world  in  dignity.  Why  did  it  want  to  disturb  my 
kitchen  affairs  ?  I  learned  later  that  it  was  to  attract 
attention.  I  am  very  glad,  then,  it  so  stooped  for 
my  benefit,  but  I  cannot  even  yet  think  I  was  of  con- 
sequence enough  for  it,  or  any  part  of  it.  It  cer- 
tainly has  added  to  my  happiness,  if  not  to  my  repu- 
tation, to  have  a  knowledge  of  this  subject,  and  be 
interested  in  it.  I  hope  the  spirit  world  is  not  sorry 
it  thus  waked  me  up,  or  wasted  thought  or  time  on 
me ;  but  if  a  man  is  only  a  bramble-bush,  he  cannot 
bear  grapes  or  figs. 

In  speaking  on  this  point,  it  reminds  me  how 
much  I  have  had  to  combat  with  people's  sense  of 
propriety.  "  It  cannot  be  spirits,"  say  they ;  "•  have 
they  nothing  better  to  do  than  to  tip  tables  and  play 
poorly  on  musical  instruments,  with  the  lights  out?" 
"Seems  to  me,"  say  some,  "if  I  were  a  spirit,  I  would 
hope  to  be  better  employed ;  I  would  not  do  such 
things  now,  and  I  hope  I  shall  not  lower  myself  when 
I  have  done  with  earth  and  become  an  angel."  Peo- 
ple are  inclined  to  look  at  the  act  itself,  not  what 
prompts  the  act,  and  there  is  where  such  people  are 
wrong. 

I  look  at  these  things  now  very  differently  from 
what  I  once  did.  There  is  no  fascination,  instruc- 
tion, or  entertainment  in  the  movement  of  material 
things  in  the  way  mentioned,  simply  as  movements ; 
but  if  one  is  persuaded  that  it  is  a  departed  spirit, 


142  SHADOWS. 

taking  that  way  to  make  you  realize  his  or  her  pres- 
ence, is  there  then  not  fascination, —  not  in  the  thing, 
or  the  grotesque  movement,  but  in  the  invisible  intel- 
ligence that  is  manifesting  through  or  with  it? 

Now,  with  these  considerations,  notice  the  follow- 
ing incident  in  my  experience.  I  state  it  as  a  posi- 
tive fact,  as  unmistakable  a  one  as  the  fact  that  I  am 
now  writing  these  words.  I  will  do  it  elaborately, 
for  it  made  a  deep  impression  upon  me,  so  have  also 
many  others,  but  I  will  relate  this  one  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  my  point. 

I  was  sitting  at  the  window,  in  our  sitting-room, 
reading  a  newspaper  one  afternoon.  My  wife  was 
resting  on  a  sofa  on  the  other  side  of  the  room.  In 
the  center  of  it,  and  not  very  far  from  me,  was  a 
small  table.  Ann — this  Endoric  member  of  my 
household  —  was  sitting,  not  at,  but  very  near,  this 
table,  sewing,  or  repairing  some  dress,  and  at  the 
table  was  a  little  son  of  mine,  some  six  or  seven  years 
old.  Hearing  some  raps  on  the  table,  he  said:  "Is 
that  you,  Hattie  ?  "  (that  was  the  name  of  his  sister 
who  had  died  some  years  before)  and  the  response  to 
his  question  was  three  raps.  We  all  heard  them, 
which  meant,  in  spiritual  parlance:  "Yes."  The 
little  fellow  then  says:  "Oh,  mother,  Hattie  is  here, 
she  says  so  !  "  "Well,"  says  the  mother,  "go  on  and 
talk  with  her,  and  see  what  she  will  say." 

The  boy  then  said :  "  Hcittie,  have  I  been  a  good 
boy  today?"  and  the  answer  was  three  raps,  or 
"yes."  And  while  asking  one  or  two  questions  in 
this  way,  the  supper-bell  rang,  and  the  little  boy, 


HOME  MANIFESTATIONS.  143 

•while  getting  off  the  stool  on  which  he  was  sitting, 
said:  "Hattie,  will  }rou  come  and  talk  to  me  after 
tea  ?  "  And  the  mother,  as  she  arose  from  the  sofa, 
said  :  '-Why  do  n't  }'ou  ask  her  to  come  down  to  sup- 
per with  you  ?  "  We  were  amused  to  see  him  take 
her  literally,  as  he  said:  "Hattie,  will  you  come 
down  to  supper  with  me?"  And  as  he  said  this,  he 
had  got  off  of  his  stool,  and  the  table,  untouched,  was 
tipping  in  reply;  and  as  the  little  fellow  moved  then 
towards  the  door,  the  table  followed  him,  nobody 
touching  it,  —  it  seemed  to  slide  along  smoothly 
towards  the  door.  When  it  got  to  the  threshhold, 
which  was  a  little  obstruction,  it  paused  a  second, 
and  then  jumped  over  the  slight  elevation,  and  con- 
tinued its  movement  a  few  feet  to  the  head  of  the 
stairs,  seemed  to  make  an  effort  or  two  as  if  tipping, 
then  stopped. 

Now,  as  I  have  said,  I  am  stating  literally  the 
exact  truth.  It  being  so,  was  not  that  an  intelligent 
act?  Did  riot  the  invisible  intelligence  controlling 
that  table  hear  the  little  boy's  question,  and  could 
he,  she,  or  it  say  any  plainer  than  this  movement: 
"Yes,  I  thank  you,  I  will  go  with  you."  The  poet  tells 
us  there  are  sermons  in  stones.  I  believe  it ;  and 
sometimes  these  voiceless  orations  are  more  eloquent 
than  are  the  uttered  words  of  a  master.  It  does 
seem  to  me  as  if  the  bright  words  of  the  most  elo- 
quent preacher  pale  and  sink  into  insignificance  by 
the  side  of  such  mute  preaching  as  the  movement  of 
that  table,  showing  the  interest  of  a  departed  sister 
in  her  little  brother  in  the  form. 


144  SHADOWS. 

I  hardly  know  how  to  stop,  so  many  of  these 
experiences  crowd  into  my  mind,  as  if  pressing  for 
expression ;  but  I  will  hold  them  back,  and  close 
this  chapter  by  relating  a  circumstance  of  a  different 
kind,  but  certainly  of  a  very  convincing  and  encour- 
aging character. 

On  one  occasion,  when  Ann  had  been  sitting  for 
us,  and  with  us  for  over  a  year,  she  declined  to  sit ; 
said  she  was  not  going  to  do  so  any  more.  Being 
pressed  for  the  reason,  she  said  the  priest  had  told 
her  she  must  not.  Ann  was  a  Catholic,  but  had  not 
been  to  confession  since  she  came  to  live  with  us, 
but  she  had  lately  been,  and,  among  her  other  sins, 
confessed  to  sitting  with  us  for  these  manifestations. 
She  wanted  to  oblige  us,  but  was  afraid  to. 

This  priest  had  told  her  that  the  spirits  who  came 
were  really  the  spirits  of  Andrew  and  Peter  (the 
names  of  her  husband  and  father),  but  that  she  did 
not  belong  to  that  or  our  circle.  That  sitting  with 
us  for  such  a  purpose  was  wicked,  and  forbid  it  in  the 
usual  Catholic  way.  I  tried  to  persuade  her,  but  did 
not  succeed,  so  I  became  strategetic,  and  said  to  her : 
"  You  say  the  priest  said  the  spirits  that  came  were 
your  husband  and  father?"  "Yes,"  said  she,  "  the 
priest  said  so."  "  Were  they  good  Catholics  ? " 
"Yes,"  said  she.  "And  you  thought  a  good  deal  of 
them,  did  you  ?  "  "  Oh,  certainly  !  "  "Which  do  you 
think  would  know  better  what  was  right,  your  hus- 
band and  father,  who  are  now  spirits  in  the  other 
world,  or  the  priest,  who  has  not  been  there  yet  ?  " 
She  hesitated,  but  said  she  thought  they  would. 


HOME  MANIFESTATIONS.  145 

"Now,"  says  I,  "Arm,  I  do  not  want  you  to  do 
anything  wrong,  but  I  want  you  to  sit  just  once,  to 
ask  Andrew  and  Peter  whether  it  is  right  or  wrong, 
for  they  will  know, —  will  they  not  ?  and  the  priest 
says  they  are  really  Andrew  and  Peter."  She  could 
not  object  to  so  reasonable  a  request,  and  she  did  so ; 
and,  the  raps  coming,  says  I :  "Who  is  this?"  And 
the  reply  was:  "Andrew."  Says  I:  "Andrew,  is  it 
wrong  for  Ann  to  sit  in  this  way  for  these  manifes- 
tations?" And  the  reply  was  aloud  "No."  "Do 
you  think  Ann  had  better  sit  for  us,  as  she  has  been 
doing  ?  "  And  the  answer  came  :  "  Yes."  "  You 
see,"  said  I  to  Ann,  "what  your  father  and  husband 
both  say,  and  you  know  it  is  really  they,  for  the 
priest  says  it  is,  and  they,  being  in  the  spirit  world, 
ought  to  know  better  than  the  priest,  had  they  not?" 
And  Ann  thought  so,  and  made  no  further  objection. 

The  remembrance  of  this  colloquy,  growing  out 
of  her  confession,  always  pleased  me ;  I  flanked 
the  priest  adroitly  from  his  own  logic.  I  also  got 
the  admission,  indirectly,  of  him  that  the  manifes- 
tations were  the  work  of  spirits.  It  was  always 
pleasant  also  to  have  Ann  feel  that  her  father  and 
her  husband  had  a  hand  in  this  matter.  I  ought 
to  add,  which  may  be  suggestive,  also,  that  Andrew 
and  Peter  were  the  spirits  that  did  most  of  this  mys- 
terious work,  that  is,  when  a  table  moved,  they  were 
the  spirits  that  did  it,  or  they  seemed  to  be  the  spirits 
that  controlled  her,  certainly  for  the  sensuous  or 
physical  manifestations. 

I  have  found  in  many  instances  that  the  spirits 


146  SHADOWS. 

who  make  these  physical  manifestations,  or  move- 
ments, are  not  the  higher  class  of  spirits,  but  spirits 
who  are  but  a  slight  remove  from  palpable  presence. 
I  have  been  told  that  Theodore  Parker  cannot  move 
a  material  object,  or  tip  a  table,  but  he  can  read  the 
mind  and  influence  the  intellect ;  that  it  is  a  more 
earthly  class  of  spirits  that,  in  this  sensuous  way, 
make  themselves  manifest.  My  experience  with  Ann- 
seems  to  rather  indorse  the  idea. 


XIII. 

SEERSHIP   OR   CLAIRVOYANCE. 

Giving  an  account  of  phenomena  with  an  intelligent 
and  sometimes  a  prophetic  basis. 

"And  that  should  teach  us 
There  's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will." — Shakespeare. 

If,  when  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  in  his  poetical 
address  t.o  his  class  in  Bowdoin  College,  on  its  fiftieth 
anniversary,  said :  — 

"  Not  to  the  living  only  be  they  said, 
But  to  that  other  living,  called  the  dead," 

it  was  not  a  fancy  merely,  but  a  truth ;  that  if  he 
really  felt  or  believed  that  there  was  an  unseen  audi- 
ence as  well  as  a  visible  one  listening  to  him, —  or,  to 
express  the  thought  in  another  way,  if  there  is  a  spirit- 
ual environment  around  this  world  of  sense, —  then 
the  divinity  referred  to  that  doth  hedge  us  about,  as 
the  poet  says,  is  a  very  rational  idea.  I  think  a  better 
word  than  "  divinity  "  could  be  used  to  express  it, 
but  the  fact  would  be  all  the  same ;  and  you  know  a 
rose  by  any  other  name  would  smell  as  sweet. 

147 


148  SHADOWS. 

This  fact  of  such  an  environment  being  admitted, 
how  it  seems  to  warm  up  this  world,  illuminating 
the  whole  picture  of  human  life.  Everything  then 
puts  on  new  forms  of  beauty,  changing  deformity 
and  fable  into  beauty  and  truth.  I  do  not  propose 
now  to  argue  this  point,  and  make  such  an  environ- 
ment appear  either  reasonable  or  truthful.  It  is  a 
fact  to  me,  and  I  merely  say  what  I  have  stated  as  a 
sort  of  setting  to  an  interesting  fact  in  my  family 
experience,  which,  in  connection  with  this  subject, 
is  worth  relating. 

There  are  many  similar  cases ;  in  fact,  traditional 
as  well  as  general  family  records  are  full  of  legendary 
lore,  mysterious  or  superstitious,  or  otherwise,  out  of 
repute  as  good  common  sense,  that  the  fact  being 
demonstrated  of  a  spiritual  world  surrounding  and 
permeating  this,  would  come  into  line  as  both  possi- 
ble and  respectable  facts.  That  is  the  reason  why 
the  one  I  propose  to  relate,  under  the  light  of  my 
spiritualistic  ideas,  will,  I  think,  be  a  matter  of 
interest. 

My  grandmother  was  a  seeress.  I  lived  in  the 
house  with  her  for  the  first  twenty  years  of  my  life, 
and  for  ten  or  fifteen  years  more,  near  by,  supervis- 
ing her  until  she  died.  Now,  while  her  spirit  which 
now  seems  to  be  in  my  surroundings,  and  also  the 
spirit  of  her  daughter,  my  mother,  I  feel  moved  to 
use  the  words  of  Coleridge  (in  his  "  Sibylline  "  lines, 
I  think)  as  my  own  :  — 

"  Blest  spirits  of  my  parents, 
Yc  hover  o'er  me  now !    Ye  shine  on  me ! 


SEERSHIP  OR  CLAIRVOYANCE.       149 

And,  like  a  flower  that  coils  forth  from  a  ruin, 
I  feel  and  seek  the  light  I  cannot  see." 

What  would  I  not  give  to  have  the  advantage 
today  that  I  had  during  her  lifetime.  But  I  was  like 
the  disciples  at  Emmaus,  who  did  not  realize  the 
departed  Master's  presence  until  he  had  gone.  With 
the  optics  of  today,  or  my  spiritualistic  experience 
to  notice  the  phenomena  of  which  I  am  going  to 
speak,  that  occurred  from  1825  to  1845,  that  would, 
indeed,  be  a  privilege. 

This  ancestor  was  a  good  and  sensible  woman, 
rather  sickly,  or  thought  she  was,  being  of  a  nervous 
constitution.  The  household,  consisting  of  her  sons 
and  daughters  and  a  few  grandchildren,  knew  noth- 
ing of  seeresses  or  seers  in  their  day,  but  considered 
her  clairvoyant  sights  as  simply  imagination  or  ner- 
vousness. Certainly,  her  best  clairvoyant  visions 
were  when  she  was  not  feeling  well,  or  under  the 
weather,  as  we  sometimes  say.  We  all  considered 
what  she  saw,  and  which  nobody  else  saw  in  this 
way,  was  the  product  of  poor  health,  and  had  no 
foundation  really,  though  they  seemed  real  to  her. 
We  pitied  her,  but  loved  and  respected  her,  as  other- 
wise she  was  a  very  gifted  woman,  with  sterling, 
human,  motherly  qualities,  but  hurt  some  by  this 
mixture  of  the  mysterious  and  strange,  or  of  a  super- 
stitious character. 

All  her  life,  or  all  I  know  of  it,  which  was  her  last 
thirty  years,  she  could  see  the  spirits  of  dead  people, 
as  she  called  them,  though  they  always  looked  alive, 
or  as  they  did  when  they  were  alive.  Hardly  a  week 


150  SHADOWS. 

passed  without  her  referring  to  such  visits.  They 
were,  as  I  have  said,  more  persistent  or  frequent 
when  her  health  was  poor ;  hence,  in  the  minds  of 
the  family,  the  subject  was  looked  upon  as  disease. 

These  subjective  apparitions  were  always  the  forms 
and  faces  of  departed  people,  never  of  living  ones, — 
generally  relatives,  brothers,  sisters,  or  her  children. 
She  was  one  of  a  family  of  twelve,  and  she  was  the 
mother,  also,  of  twelve,  and  my  mother  was  the  last 
of  them  to  pass  away  a  few  years  ago,  aged  eighty- 
four.  Most  of  her  children  had  died  in  young  man- 
hood or  womanhood,  so  there  were  many  to  come  to 
her  in  this  way,  and  they  very  often  did.  I  think 
everyone  of  her  brothers  and  sisters,  my  great  uncles 
and  aunts,  had  at  one  time  or  another  put  in  their 
ghostly  appearance,  if  such  phenomena  can  be  called 
appearances.  I  am  as  familiar  with  them,  from  her 
description  when  thus  appearing,  as  I  am  tradition- 
ally, as  the  greater  part  of  them  died  before  I  saw 
them. 

Notwithstanding  the  family-feeling  that  these 
"second-sights,"  as  they  were  called,  were  weak- 
nesses that  better  health  or  a  less  nervous  or  sensitive 
organization  would  have  relieved  her  from,  none  of 
uti  liked  to  have  her  tell  of  any  ominous  ones  that 
might  be  premonitions, —  "showing,"  as  Dr.  John- 
son said,  "  by  our  fears  our  faith  in  them,"  for  they 
were  very  apt  to  be  previsions.  I  will  relate  one 
that  I  remember  well,  as  it  made  a  great  impression 
on  me,  and  this  will  suggest  the  character  of  some 
of  the  others. 


SEERSHIP   OR   CLAIRVOYANCE.  151 

On  one  occasion  this  old  lady  said  to  me  that  she 
felt  very  down-hearted, —  that  she  had  had  a  vision 
that  made  her  feel  so.  Her  dead  children  had  not 
come  as  they  generally  did,  as  if  they  were  alive  and 
happy ;  but  they  had  come  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
her  feel  as  if  she  was  going  to  have  a  grief.  She 
said  she  saw  two  of  her  dead  children,  George  and 
Edward,  and  both  came  to  her  in  coffins,  standing 
against  the  wall,  with  their  lids  hanging  down,  expos- 
ing their  dead  faces. 

They  did  not  look  happy  and  natural,  as  these 
specters  usually  did,  but  represented  themselves  as 
corpses, —  eyes  closed,  motionless,  and  dead.  That 
was  not  all :  for  there  were  three  coffins  in  a  row, — 
George  in  one,  Edward  in  the  other ;  and  then  Bar- 
ney was  in  a  coffin,  too,  his  standing  in  the  middle  ; 
"and  Barney  is  alive,  and  I  am  afraid,"  said  she, 
"that  something  is  going  to  happen."  She  evidently 
felt  that  Barney,  who  was  then  living  in  New  Orleans, 
was  going  to  die.  This  was  forty  years  ago  before 
there  was  any  railroad  there,  and  no  telegraph. 

How  distinctly  I  remember  the  following  incident, 
about  two  weeks  after  the  date  of  this  vision  of  the 
three  coffins.  We  were  all  sitting  in  the  parlor  of 
our  two-story  house,  in  Roxbury,  when  we  heard  the 
garden-gate  open,  and  she  said :  "  Oh !  it  is  a  letter 
coming,  and  I  do  n't  want  to  see  it."  And  she  went 
up  stairs.  In  a  second  or  two  the  door-bell  was  rung, 
and  a  letter  left  by  the  post-boy,  with  a  black  seal 
on  it.  It  was  written  by  a  friend  of  Barney's,  inform- 
ing us  of  his  sudden  sickness  and  death. 


152  SHADOWS. 

It  seems  to  me  the  symbol  of  the  coffins,  as  I  have 
described  them,  was  a  very  intelligent  and  expressive 
one.  Could  any  communication  be  more  expressive 
of  the  fact  than  this  was, —  the  open  coffins  of  three 
of  her  children,  showing  three  dead  faces?  Could 
there  be  any  mistake  in  what  was  meant  or  intended? 
If  a  voice  had  said,  or  if  George  and  Edward  had 
said,  "Barney  has  just  died,"  would  the  fact  have 
been  more  distinctly  or  intelligently  conveyed  than 
was  this  mute  way  of  symbolizing  the  fact  ? 

Is  there  any  royal  road  or  occult  way  of  getting 
information  ?  Here  was  an  occurrence  twelve  days 
before  it  was  possible,  in  that  day,  to  have  been 
known  by  us.  Everybody  is  liable  to  die,  but  Bar- 
ney no  more  than  anybody  else.  He  was  not  sick, 
and  only  about  thirty-five  or  forty  years  old.  I  am 
aware  there  are  sometimes  premonitions;  so  there 
are  dreams  sometimes  that  have  an  intelligent  method 
in  them,  that  in  some  inscrutable  way  are  pre-visions 
of  coming  events,  casting,  as  it  were,  their  shadows 
before. 

If  there  are  divinities  shaping  human  ends,  which 
in  most  peoples'  minds  is  simply  a  poetic  fancy;  but 
if  it  be  a  reality,  as  modern  Spiritualism  teaches, — 
that  we  live  in  two  worlds,  but  cognizant  of  but 
one, —  then  this  vision,  which  I  have  related  at 
length,  becomes  an  intelligent  act  on  the  part  of  the 
angel  world.  Can  it  be  anything  else  ? 

I  like  the  closing  words  of  an  able  agnostic  minis- 
ter of  a  discourse  on  immortality,  which  are  these : 
"Though  I  do  find  this  life  sweet,  I  do  want  another; 


SEEKSHIP   OR   CLAIRVOYANCE.  153 

and  though  I  cannot  go  as  far  as  some  and  say  this 
life  is  not  worth  having  if  there  be  no  other,  I  do 
say  dust  and  ashes  seem  a  somewhat  poor  and  impo- 
tent conclusion  for  such  a  magnificent,  grand,  terri- 
ble life  drama  as  that  we  are  playing  here  on  this  old 
earth, — 

'  I  cannot  think  it  all  shall  end  in  naught ; 
That  the  abyss  shall  be  the  grave  of  thought. 
That  e'er  oblivion's  shoreless  sea  shall  roll 
O'er  love  and  wonder  and  the  lifeless  soul.'  " 


XIV. 

SUBJECTIVE    APPARITIONS. 

A  visit  of  consolation  where  the  consoler  got  consoled. 

There  seems  to  be  a  power  in  the  soul  or  spirit  of 
man  which  at  times  projects  itself,  or  its  visible  per- 
sonality, and  shows  itself  at  a  great  distance,  and,  it 
would  seem  instantly,  no  matter  whether  the  dis- 
tance be  one  mile  or  ten  thousand  miles.  This  most 
generally  occurs  just  at  the  point  of  death.  Instances 
of  this  fact  are  numerous.  Most  of  these  appear- 
ances, as  I  have  said,  occur  just  at  the  moment  of 
death,  as  if  that  event  was  the  fulcrum  necessary  to 
produce  it;  but  instances  are  not  rare  when  these 
appearances  have  occurred  at  other  periods  in  a  per- 
son's life. 

These  subjective  forms  look  exactly  as  the  person 
did, —  a  natural,  human-appearing  person,  leading 
the  seer  to  think,  or  say:  "How  did  he  get  here 
when  I  supposed  he  was  so  far  off?"  and  then  to 
find  it  only  a  seeming  or  a  fancy,  when,  sooner  or 
later,  we  hear  of  the  person's  death,  and  it  generally 
proves  to  have  been  at  the  moment  of  the  appearing. 
It  would  seem  to  be  a  sort  of  soul  appearing  to  soul, 

154 


SUBJECTIVE  APPARITIONS.  155 

and  shows  by  the  manifestation  that  there  is  a  spirit- 
ual man  as  well  as  a  physical  man  that  can  exist 
separately,  or  the  fact  of  a  man's  spirit  existing  dis- 
tinct from  his  body. 

I  do  not  think  it  argues  against  this  deduction  by 
saying  it  occurs  only  at  the  moment  of  death,  which 
is  not  the  fact,  as  I  have  said.  I  could  state  an 
instance  in  my  own  experience  if  it  were  worth  the 
while  to  do  so.  To  me,  the  appearance  of  the  per- 
son at  death  seems  to  be  as  if  intelligently  informing 
the  beholder  of  his  final  departure. 

I  was  well  acquainted  with  our  late  citizen,  Col. 
Wm.  B.  Green,  the  author  of  the  "Blazing  Star," 
well  known  among  us  as  a  theoretical  labor-reformer 
and  philanthropist  during  the  last  few  years  of  his 
life.  I  saw  him  quite  often  ;  he  was  not  a  Spiritual- 
ist, but  was  very  hospitable  to  the  idea.  His  daugh- 
ter, a  fair-haired  maiden  of  about  twenty,  was 
drowned  off  the  coast  of  France,  being  one  of  the 
passengers  of  a  steamer  that  was  there  lost.  She 
had  left  this  country  a  few  weeks  before.  I  think 
this  was  on  her  voyage  out,  but  it  may  not  have 
been,  as  I  am  writing  from  memory. 

When  the  news  came  of  the  loss  of  the  steamer, 
and  of  her  loss,  I  took  an  early  opportunity  of  calling 
upon  Col.  Green  from  sympathy  and  respect,  and 
found  him  much  better  prepared  to  meet  his  grief 
than  I  expected,  which  was  explained  when  he  told 
me  he  had  the  announcement  of  her  departure  from 
earth  a  few  days  or  a  week  before,  though  hoping 
otherwise,  that  the  information  in  advance  of  earthly 


156  SHADOWS. 

information  was  an  illusion.  When  the  news  was 
cabled  of  the  loss  of  the  steamer,  and  she  among  the 
lost,  he  then  felt  it  was  all  right,  for  he  had  seen  her 
since  the  event,  and  he  related  to  me  the  following 
circumstance :  — 

In  the  night  he  awoke,  or  was  awake,  and  saw,  to 
his  surprise  and  wonder,  his  daughter.  She  was 
clothed  in  white,  as  if  wearing  a  wedding-garment 
(it  was  his  expression),  with  a  bright  smile  of  happi- 
ness on  her  face,  and  pointing  upwards.  She  dis- 
appeared, apparently,  out  of  the  room  into  the  next 
chamber,  where  his  wife,  her  mother,  was  sleeping, 
and  she,  it  seemed,  saw  the  same  vision, —  that  is, 
the  daughter  was  seen  by  both  father  and  mother. 
Col.  Green  said  it  was  no  dream,  for  he  was  wide 
awake.  This  call,  on  my  part,  was  intended  to  be 
one  of  a  consoling  character.  I  knew  the  loss  he  had 
met  with,  and  expected,  or  at  least  hoped,  to  have 
given  him,  from  some  of  my  experience  in  post- 
mortem matters,  some  consolation.  I  knew  that  he 
respected  me,  and  knew  of  my  belief,  for  we  had 
talked  together  on  the  subject,  and  that  anything  I 
said  would  be  both  honest  and  from  my  heart. 

As  I  said,  he  needed  no  consolation.  He  was 
happy,  felt  that  it  was  all  right,  and  he  looked  as 
rationally  on  her  departure  from  earth  as  he  did 
when  she  left  home  on  her  philanthropic  mission  to 
Europe  (it  was  some  charitable  undertaking  that  she 
became  interested  in,  I  think,  of  a  Catholic  charac- 
ter). Mr.  Green's  glowing  account  of  this  interest- 


SUBJECTIVE  APPARITIONS.  157 

ing  circumstance  made  him  my  consoler  instead  of 
my  consoling  him. 

Th'is  is  not  my  experience,  but  the  experience  of 
my  friend,  as  he  related  it  to  me,  and  I  know  he  was 
truthful ;  so  I  tell  the  story.  With  my  experience 
in  these  things,  I  remember  how  I  was  lifted  up 
both  in  my  knowledge  and  faith  by  the  joy  lie  mani- 
fested at  having  such  an  angelic  visit. 

I  will  now  relate  a  circumstance  of  a  cognate  char- 
acter from  my  own  experience.  This  was  many  years 
ago,  but  it  made  a  vivid  impression  on  me  at  the 
time,  and  has  never  been  forgotten.  I  relate  the  cir- 
cumstance not  so  much  for  itself  as  for  its  connection 
with  later  events,  down  even  to  the  present  time. 

My  mother  had  a  favorite  sister,  Erueline  ;  she  was 
my  aunt,  and  was  one  of  the  most  loveable  young 
women  that  ever  lived.  We,  myself  and  two  sisters, 
loved  her  like  a  mother,  and  she  loved  and  cared  for 
us.  In  early  womanhood,  she  gradually  went  into  a 
decline  with  consumption,  and,  after  failing  away  for 
many  months,  she  passed  to  the  higher  life.  Of 
course,  with  that  disease,  death  was  expected.  It 
was  only  a  question  of  time;  it  might  be  months, 
and  it  might  be  a  year  or  two.  She  had  changed 
from  a  rosy -cheek  young  woman  to  a  pale  and  ema- 
ciated one,  but  her  interest  in  us,  and  her  loveable- 
ness,  were  permanent  and  enduring. 

One  evening,  seated  by  the  table,  mother  busy 
sewing,  and  I  getting  my  school -lesson  ;  my  two  sis- 
ters, near  the  same  age,  and  a  year  or  two  younger 
than  I  was,  were  asleep  in  the  curtained  bed  at  the 


158  SHADOWS. 

other  end  of  the  room.  Sarah,  the  older  of  the 
two,  and  the  special  favorite  of  Emeline,  suddeuty 
screeched  out  as  if  in  distress,  and  mother  ran  to  the 
bedside  to  see  what  was  the  matter.  Sarah,  agitated 
and  frightened,  said:  "Aunt  Emeline  just  pulled  aside 
the  curtain  and  looked  right  at  me,  and  she  smiled 
and  nodded  as  she  did  so ;  she  looked  so  lean  and 
death-like  that  I  am  frightened."  "  Oh,"  said  mother, 
"go  right  to  sleep,  you  were  only  dreaming;  nobody 
has  been  into  the  room.  John  and  I  have  been  sit- 
ting here  all  the  time,  and  poor,  sick  Emeline  has 
not  been  off  her  bed  for  a  month  "  (she  was  occup}7- 
ing  the  chamber  under  ours).  "No,  mother,"  said 
Sarah,  "  I  was  not  asleep,  had  not  been  asleep,  and 
had  heard  you  and  John  talking,  so  it  was  really 
Emeline  her  own  self,  for  I  saw  her ;  do  n't  I  know 
aunt  Emeline?  I  saw  her  with  my  e3'es  just  as 
plainly  as  I  am  now  seeing  you,  and  she  looked  right 
into  my  face."  As  Sarah  said  this,  our  grandmother 
came  into  the  room,  weeping,  and  said :  "  Emeline 
has  gone  ;  she  has  just  died." 

This  appearance  was  a  reality  to  Sarah,  and  from 
the  circumstance  of  just  having  died,  or  had  left  her 
body  lying  on  the  bed  in  the  room,  it  was  an  intelli- 
gent notice,  by  her  appearance  to  her  little  pet,  that 
she  had  died,  and  had  stopped  a  minute  in  her  depart- 
ure to  say,  in  that  mute  way,  good-bye.  She  thought 
everything  of  her  little  Sarah ;  they  were  as  much 
attached  as  if  they  were  mother  and  child. 

I  have  sometimes  wondered  why  this  spirit,  for  it 
must  have  been  a  spirit  (as  her  body  had  not  moved) 


SUBJECTIVE   APPARITIONS.  159 

should  appear  so  lean  and  pale  and  dea,thly,  the  pict- 
ure of  her  bodily  form,  for  the  spirit  had  not  died, 
or  had  a  consumption ;  but,  then,  if  she  did  not 
appear  as  she  was  then  known,  she  might  not  have 
been  recognized.  I  prefer,  however,  to  think,  and  have 
good  reason  to,  as  these  "  Shadows  "  in  their  whole- 
ness will  show,  that  spirits  in  the  "  land  of  light  and 
beauty "  are  free  from  their  physical  imperfections 
and  disabilities,  and  so-  to  leave  such  an  impression, 
as  it  rests  in  my  own  mind,  I  will  add  the  following 
fancy  verse :  — 

"  A  ghost !  by  my  cavern  it  darted ' 

In  mooubeams  the  spirit  was  drest,  — 
For  lovely  appear  the  departed 
When  they  visit  the  dreams  of  my  rest  I " 


XV. 

EMELTNE'S  APPARITION. 

Other  "white ladies"  besides  the  one  of  Avenel^  related 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

Emeline,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  died  over  fifty  years  ago,  when  my  two  sis- 
ters and  I  were  children.  Since  I  have  been  a  Spirit- 
ualist, which  dates  from  the  year  1857,  I  have  had 
many  proofs  of  her  continued  existence,  and  her  inter- 
est in  my  family  or  tribe,  so  to  speak.  I  have  some- 
times thought  of  her  as  the  "  white  lady,"  referring 
to  "The  white  lady  of  Avenel,"  in  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
novel  of  the  "  Monastery." 

I  cannot  say  her  influence  or  presence  has  been 
significant  of  trouble  or  death,  as  the  novelist's  •'  white 
lady"  was;  yet  it  has  often  been  so,  and  a  very  vivid 
impression  of  her  presence  would  make  me  a  little 
uneasy  now,  and  yet  she  has,  more  than  once,  shown 
an  interest  and  a  marked  supervision  for  our  good, 
and  so  remarkable  that  I  count  them,  or  at  least  one 
of  them  among  my  best  experiences ;  yet,  as  I  have 
said,  when  I  feel  certain  of  her  contiguity,  I  am  apt 
to  think  that  something  is  going  to  happen  our  family 
or  tribal  interest.  ieo 


EMELINE'S  APPARITION.  101 

On  a  certain  Monday  evening  not  very  long  ago  (it 
was  in  the  spring  of  1883, 1  see  by  an  article  of  mine, 
which  is  now  in  print  before  me),  I  seated  myself  at 
the  writing  table  in  my  library  for  a  few  hours'  work 
that  I  had  been  putting  off,  and  then  I  felt  that  it 
must  be  attended  to.  A  restless  feeling  came  over 
me,  and  the  image  of  Aunt  Emeline  came  strangely 
into  ray  mind.  Such  accidental  images  or  thoughts 
are  of  no  special  importance,  unless  they  are  persist- 
ent and  will  not  depart  at  the  wishing.  When  an 
image  or  presence  of  a  spirit  "sticks,"  using  Charles 
Sumner's  expressive  word,  I  have  learned  to  consider 
it  an  indication  of  such  a  spirit,  and,  of  course,  for  a 
purpose ;  but  for  what  purpose  ?  There  is  the  rub. 

I  hardly  feel  like  enlarging  on  this  point.  The 
reader,  I  trust,  will  conclude  from  the  character  of 
these  "Shadows"  that  I  think!  know  what  I  am  talk- 
ing about ;  if  not,  as  I  have  said  before,  he  or  she 
must  skip  me.  "  Barkis  is  willin'." 

My  sister's  husband,  Albert ,a  very  dear  friend 

of  mine,  and  one  of  the  best  men  that  ever  lived, 
came  into  my  mind  with  this  imaginary  presence  of 
Aunt  Emeline.  I  know  of  no  reason  why  they  should 
have  been  thus  associated,  only  I  state  the  fact,  and 
their  persistency  in  my  mind  disturbed  me  in  my 
work,  and  I  gave  it  up.  I  found  the  conditions  were 
not  right,  and  yet,  as  many  know,  I  am  one  who  can 
make  his  own  conditions.  When  I  found  that  these 
thoughts  of  Emeline  and  Albert  were  "  holding  the 
fort,"  and  the  work  I  was  doing  was  not,  I  gave  up 
to  it  and  cogitated.  It  would  be  tedious  to  write  the 


162  SHADOWS. 

details  and  explain  the  adroitness  of  circumstances 
and  coincidences  that  mixed  the  two  names  together, 
—  the  image  of  the  spirit  and  the  image  of  the  mor- 
tal,—  so  I  will  not  attempt  it.  I  have  been  a  student 
or  close  observer  of  these  "phantoms  of  the  brain" 
for  a  long  while,  and  I  know  I  am  not  deluded  in  my 
conclusions  of  the  fact;  the  purpose  is  what  bothers 
ine. 

Albert  was  a  man  in  poor  health,  and  had  been  for 
years.  For  many  years  he  had  great  pain  in  his  head 
from  a  diseased  ear ;  and  having,  myself,  a  catarrh, 
which  might  be  of  a  similar  character,  and  that  also 
of  long  standing  but  no  pain,  seemed  to  be  a  pointer 
to  the  circumstance.  Albert  had  been  urging  me  for 
a  long  time  to  attend  to  it  so  as  not  to  suffer  as  he 
had,  but  I  had  not  felt  the  necessity  of  it.  I  could 
see  no  other  unit  of  measure  to  explain  this  mental 
association  of  the  two  but  this  common  auricular 
trouble.  I  began  to  consider  it  a  gentle  warning,  and 
mentally  concluded  at  an  early  moment  to  attend  to 
it.  The  presence,  if  it  were  one,  and  the  associations 
having  thus  monopolized  my  time,  the  evening's  work 
was  postponed.  I  was  not  in  the  mood  to  attend  to 
it  or  anything  else,  owing  to  these  unexpected  and 
weird  thoughts. 

The  next  morning  (Tuesday)  among  my  letters  I 
found  one  from  my  sister  in  Rhode  Island,  dated  the 
day  before,  saying  Albert,  her  husband,  had  just  died. 
It  took  me  by  surprise,  for  I  knew  that  he  was  out 
attending  to  business  a  day  or  two  before.  This 
explained  the  presence  of  this  "  white  lady  "  and  her 


EMELINE'S  APPARITION.  103 

connection  with  Albert,  which  I  had  associated  with 
a  common  ear  trouble,  but  it  seems  to  me  it  was  a 
"phantomatic  whisper,''  the  best  it  could  do  to  impress 
me  of  my  friend's  death  and,  perhaps,  presence  also. 

On  my  way  home  that  afternoon  I  stopped  at  a 
spiritual  meeting  a  few  minutes.  A  medium  on  the 
platform  was  giving  tests  to  the  audience.  They 
generally  do  not  amount  to  much,  are  given,  it  seems 
to  me,  as  an  advertisement,  so  I  was  not  interested 
in  them,  and  was  reading  a  newspaper  instead  ;  but  as 
I  sat  thus  at  the  end  of  the  hall,  this  medium  said: 
"I  hear  the  name  of  Albert, —  yes,  Albert  is  here. 
He  seems  to  be  attracted  here  by  some  friend  of  his." 
I  felt  from  the  first  that  it  was  my  Albert,  who  had 
so  lately  died,  and  the  name  was  for  me,  but  I  said 
nothing. 

The  medium  then  said:  "  It  is  for  some  one  in  that 
direction,"  pointing  towards  me.  I  said :  "  Has  he 
been  in  the  spirit  world  some  time?"  "No,"  said 
the  controlling  spirit,  "he  has  just  come  over.  It  is 
for  you,  sir,"  addressing  me,  "  he  seems  glad  that  you 
recognize  him.  He  says,  'John,  I  begin  to  under- 
stand these  things  better  than  I  did.  You  know  I 
did  not  believe  as  much  as  you  did,  but  I  see  it  now 
as  you  do.'"  Then  the  control  continuing,  said, 
"  John,  I  have  no  pain  now,  no  pains  in  my  head ; 
none  of  those  noises  that  I  used  to  tell  you  of."  This 
was  substantially  what  he  said,  and  I  wrote  it  down 
at  the  time.  It  certainly  was  remarkably  applicable. 

It  was  a  simple  name, —  Albert;  that  might  have 
been  a  guess,  but  when  was  added  the  exact  views 


164  SHADOWS. 

he  had  of  Spiritualism,  it  made  two  good  guesses,  and 
then  he  spoke  of  his  head  and  pain  and  noises,  of 
which  he  and  I  had  had  many  talks  in  life.  This  takes 
the  matter  wholly  out  of  guess-work  and  satisfies  me, 
and  would  anyone  with  like  experience,  that  it  was 
my  friend  Albert,  and  that  the  Monday  night  "  phan- 
toms of  the  brain"  were  real  presences  also.  I  was 
wholly  unacquainted  with  this  medium,  still  I  may 
have  been  known  to  him,  probably  was.  I  am  sure 
nobody  there  knew  that  I  had  lost  an  Albert,  and  I 
do  not  think  anyone  knew  that  I  had  such  a  relative, 
as  he  had  never  been  among  the  Spiritualists,  and 
lived  in  another  State. 

1  will  now  relate  an  experience  which  shows  an 
actual  supervision  by  a  spirit  over  a  mortal  in  the  form. 

Sometimes  spiritual  supervision  is  so  definite  as  to 
be  unmistakable  of  itself,  so  self-cvidently  true  that 
it  cannot  be  coincidence  or  imagination ;  its  definite- 
ness  forbids  it.  Such  visits  certainly  are  like  the 
fabled  angels'  visits,  few  and  far  between.  The  only 
drawback  to  such  a  case  being  a  literal  fact  in.  any- 
one's mind  is  their  unfrequency,  and  perhaps  the 
special  matter  not  always  being  of  importance  enough 
to  call  for  angelic  supervision. 

If  the  importance  is  the  factor  in  such  cases,  then 
life  is  full  of  demands  that  call  for  aid  and  super- 
vision in  vain,  so  there  must  be  exoteric  conditions 
of  which  we  know  nothing,  or  the  supervising  defini- 
tion of  what  is  considered  of  importance  is  different 
from  ours.  Here  is  an  experience  of  a  supervising 
intelligence,  which  is  quite  remarkable,  and  from  the 


EMELINE'S  APPARITION.  165 

nature  of  the  case  could  not  have  been  accidental. 
It  will  be  an  interesting  account  in  itself,  as  well  as 
an  illustration  to  the  principal  feature  or  point  in 
this  chapter. 

My  sister's  daughter,  or  niece  of  mine,  whom  in 
tliis  sketch  I  will  call  Mary,  was  making  us  a  visit. 
She  was  a  young  lady  of  about  sixteen,  very  inter- 
esting and  well  educated.  From  something  I  had 
said,  she  spoke  of  some  "spiritual  manifestations," 
and  on  what  had  occurred  at  her  school  on  a  certain 
occasion,  which  made  me  say :  "  Mary,  you  must  be 
a  medium."  "No,  I  guess  not,  uncle,"  she  said,  as  if 
the  appellation  was  not  complimentary,  she  not  hav- 
ing had  any  experience  with  Spiritualists  or  Spirit- 
ualism, and  had  the  usual  social  prejudices. 

I  said  to  her:  "Come  and  sit  at  the  table  with  me." 
She  did  so;  but  there  being  no  raps  or  tipping,  after 
a  little  while  I  said  to  her:  "  Hold  this  pencil  in  your 
hand,"  offering  her  one,  and  laying  some  sheets  of 
paper  on  the  table,  she  holding  the  pencil  as  if  she 
was  going  to  write.  Her  hand  was  still  for  a  little 
while,  then  began  a  slight  motion,  which  grew  very 
rapid,  so  that  the  pencil  end  made  a  lot  of  dots,  but 
no  writing.  "Is  not  this  strange,  uncle?"  said  she; 
"see  how  my  hand  jumps;  I  cannot  help  it;  1  do  not 
do  it;  it  does  it  itself;"  which  was  very  evident. 

After  a  little  while  the  pencil  began  to  write,  and 
very  rapidly  filled  the  page,  which  I  took  u^>,  and 
she,  without  stopping,  began  to  fill  another,  and  so 
on,  filling  four  pages,  signing  the  last  one  "Erneline 
Clap."  I  was  very  much  interested  both  in  the  fact 


100  SHADOWS. 

and  the  contents,  as  I  read  the  communications  as 
she  wrote  them,  as  I  took  up  the  sheets  one  after 
another.  The  young  lady  knew  nothing  of  the  con- 
tents of  the  communication,  as  the  reader  will  here- 
after see  from  the  nature  of  it ;  and  she  kept  saying 
while  she  was  writing :  "  Is  not  this  strange,  uncle, 
that  my  hand  is  writing  so,  and  I  don't  do  it?" 
When  she  had  finished,  the  pencil  flew  out  of  her 
hands  with  a  jerk,  and  I  said  to  her:  "Do  you  know 
who  Emeline  Clap  is  ?  "  "  No,"  said  she ;  "  but  do  n't 
you  know,  as  the  name  is  Clap?"  (our  ancestral 
name).  I  said  to  her  very  impressively,  as  I  was 
rather  astonished  at  the  contents:  "She  is  your  moth- 
er's and  my  aunt,  who  died  long  before  you  were 
born,  and  when  your  mother  was  a  little  girl.  Hold- 
ing the  sheets  in  my  hand,  I  then  read  the  message 
aloud.  Here  is  a  copy :  — 

"My  dear  Mary,  I  have  come  to  warn  you,  and  to  give 
you  good  advice.  The  course  you  are  pursuing  is  wrong. 
You  are  having  you  think  a  pleasant  time ;  but  you  are 
doing  yourself  an  injury,  and  are  injuring  Mr.  Chick.  He 
is  nothing  to  you,  and  never  will  be.  He  in  time  will  return 
home,  and  forget  you ;  and  in  the  course  of  time  you  will  be 
married,  but  not  to  Mr.  Chick.  Owing  to  the  time  and 
thought  he  devotes  to  you,  he  is  not  making  the  progress 
that  he  otherwise  would ;  and  you  are  hurting  yourself,  and 
wouldjgrieve  your  parents  if  they  knew  you  were  thus  inter- 
ested. Now,  Mary,  go  to  your  mother,  and  make  her  your 
confidant,  or  stop  just  where  you  are.  I  take  this  unex- 
pected way  of  reaching  you,  through  the  eyes  of  your  uncle, 
for  your  good.  I  am  Emeline  Clap." 


EMELESTE'S  APPARITION.  1G7 

When  1  read  this  letter  to  my  niece,  who  had  writ- 
ten it  without  knowing  what  she  had  written,  she 
listened  to  it  somewhat  dazed  at  the  unexpected  reve- 
lations of  the  contents,  they  being  the  secrets  of  her 
own  heart,  unknown  to  others.  It  seems  the  matter 
was  a  pleasant  flirtation, — a  sweet  secret  between 
two  hearts,  for  the  time  being  beating  as  one,  and  no 
eye  watching  them.  There  was  an  eye  it  seems,  but 
it  was  invisible.  It  was  not  God's,  but  it  saw  in  the 
night  as  well  as  in  the  day.  It  was  the  eye  of  a  super- 
vising or  guardian  spirit. 

It  was  evident  from  the  circumstances  that  she, 
though  its  amanuensis,  was  so  interested  in  the  man- 
ner of  its  production  that  she  was  wholly  ignorant 
of  what  she  had  written,  or  the  message  would  not 
have  found  a  passage  through  from  the  land  of  light 
and  beauty  to  the  eyes  of  this  shadowy  writer. 

I  did  not  realize  myself  that  the  message,  so  defin- 
itely stated,  was  founded  on  fact.  Noticing  the  young 
lady's  embarrassment,  I  said:  "Is  there  anything 
to  this,  Mary?  Is  there  a  Mr.  Chick?"  "Yes," 
said  she,  "he  is  a  fine  young  man,  I  think  everything 
of  him."  "Well,"  said  I,  "who  is  he?"  She  said: 
"  He  is  a  sophomore."  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  write 
on  this  point  further;  it  tells  its  own  story.  I  will 
add  here  that  my  niece  lived  in  Providence,  and  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Brown  University. 

I  had  never  heard  of  Mr.  Chick ;  the  message  to 
me  was  a  revelation.  I  was  as  certain  as  day  that 
Mary  was  not  the  author  of  the  communication. 
What  can  it  be  then  in  the  nature  of  things  but  what 


168  SHADOWS. 

it  purports  to  be  ?  Emeline  Clap, —  whose  body  had 
been  dead  and  buried  a  score  or  two  of  years,  but 
whose  spirit  was  alive  and  moving  among  the  dear 
ones  of  earth,  an  interested  observer,  stepping  into 
the  current  affairs  of  life  and  setting  right,  so  to  speak, 
a  misplaced  switch  that  possibly  might  have  led  to 
disaster.  This  interposition  was  effectual,  the  source 
of  it  more  potent,  perhaps,  in  working  the  cure  than 
any  earthly  advice  would  have  been. 

I  would  like  to  understand  this  matter  as  anyone 
else  would.  I  know  where  it  is  from  as  certain  as  I 
know  where  sunlight  is  from  ;  but  the  why  ?  Why 
this  manifest  interposition  in  this  instance  and  not  in 
the  thousand  other  cases  of  as  much  and  perhaps  of 
more  moment,  that  seem  to  have  no  supervising, 
viewless  aunts  ?  In  this  case  was  it  accidental,  the 
"  Gates  Ajar  "  of  both  worlds  coincidently  ?  It  is  of 
no  use  to  speculate.  There  is  the  fact  as  it  is  and 
the  circumstances,  and  seems  to  me  it  is  clearly  an 
intelligent  spirit  interposition.  This,  with  more  or 
less  definiteness,  seems  to  warrant  me  in  feeling,  as  I 
have  before  said,  that  this  "  radiant  maiden "  who 
appeared  to  my  sister  at  her  earthly  life's  exit  is  the 
"  white  lady  "  of  our  house.  May  her  shadow  never 
be  less,  even  if  mine  is ;  and  now  as  a  finish  and  a 
finis  to  this  sketch,  I  will  add  the  following  anony- 
mous lines,  after  thus  proving  them,  I  think,  to  be 
literally  true :  — 

"  The  living  are  the  only  dead; 

The  dead  live  never  more  to  die; 
And  often  when  we  think  them  fled, 
They  never  were  so  nigh." 


XVI. 

IDENTIFICATION   OP    SPIRITS. 
The  Sage  of  Gralveston  returns  according  to  promise. 

The  positive  identification  of  a  spirit  is  one  of  the 
things  seldom  accomplished  even  by  those  who  think 
they  are  getting  tests.  One  of  the  prominent  con- 
versions to  modern  Spiritualism  was  made  through, 
perhaps,  an  innocent  deception  on  the  part  of  a  spirit, 
if  deception,  in  any  sense,  can  be  innocent. 

The  fact  was  this :  the  spirit  of  a  brother,  who 
lived  and  died  in  Europe,  manifested  through  a 
medium  to  his  sister,  who  was  visiting  this  country, 
giving  his  name  and  some  family  circumstances 
wholly  unknown  to  anyone  here, —  not  even  known 
that  she  had  a  brother.  It  was  an  agreeable  sur- 
prise, and  was  the  means  of  making  a  Spiritualist  of 
her,  and  a  very  prominent  one.  Later  in  her  experi- 
ence she  learned  directly  that  the  spirit  of  her  brother 
had  never  communicated,  and  that  the  spirit  coii- 
trolling  the  medium  had  read  her  mind,  and  fed  her 
with  what  would  be  very  naturally  considered  tests. 
They  were  tests  of  spirits,  but  not  tests  of  identifica- 
tion. Good  was  done  by  even  this  deception.  A 

168 


170  SHADOWS. 

valuable  convert  was  made  to  the  cause,  and  she  is 
now  one  of  the  conspicuous  speakers  on  its  platform. 
I  merely  mention  this  to  show  how  difficult  it  is  to 
get  unmistakable  identifications,  not  to  justify  or 
qualify  any  deceptions,  no  matter  the  motive.  I  have 
had  a  few,  as  the  reader  of  these  "Shadows"  will 
have  seen,  but  not  many  that  are  unquestionable.  I 
do  not  think  identification  of  spirits  the  important 
thing  in  modern  Spiritualism.  It  is  very  easy  to  get 
positive  manifestations  of  spirits,  and  the  fact  that 
any  spirit  of  a  departed  human  being  can  come,  good 
or  bad,  settles  the  fact,  law,  or  principle ;  and  if  one 
spirit  survives  the  death  of  his  body,  the  law  holds 
good  for  all. 

I  think  it  better  that  identifications  should  be 
difficult  and  seldom,  otherwise  we  would  depend  too 
much  upon  the  departed  for  aid  and  counsel,  which 
would  certainly  retard  human  progress.  I  think  no 
one  who  is  zealously  and  honestly  seeking  for  truth 
in  this  direction  but  will  find  now  and  then  an  iden- 
tification of  a  spirit,  but  not  often  enough  to  make 
him  perfectly  happy,  but  often  enough  for  his  human 
good.  That  identifications  are  possible  is  an  unmis- 
takable fact.  I  think  I  will  not  enlarge  upon  the 
subject  further  in  this  chapter,  the  rationale  of  the 
matter  not  now  being  my  principal  object;  but,  with 
what  I  have  said,  I  will  relate  a  remarkable  case  of 
identification,  where  my  friend,  the  "Sage  of  Gal- 
veston,"  as  I  used  to  familiarly  call  him,  returned  to 
me,  according  to  promise,  unmistakably. 

I  wrote  an  account  of  it,  and  printed  it  at  the 


IDENTIFICATION   OF   SPIRITS.  171 

time.  The  statement  seems  to  express  all  the  points 
very  clearly,  so  I  will  now  print  that  instead  of 
rewriting  it,  and,  perhaps,  condensing  it.  It  was 
written  as  a  fugitive  article,  and  not  with  as  much 
literary  care  as  I  would  have  done  if  intended  for 
book-form,  but  I  trust  any  superfluous  rhetoric  will 
not  be  a  blemish.  It  was  necessary  to  be  very  par- 
ticular and  minute  on  the  points  in  order  to  have  the 
whole  matter  understood.  I  consider  the  circum- 
stance a  very  important  one,  and  worthy  of  careful 
perusal.  The  article  referred  to  is  as  follows :  — 

"Now  came  still  evening  on,  and  twilight  gray 
Had  in  her  sober  livery  all  things  clad." 

Such  was  the  fact  to  the  world  and  to  me  on  the 
closing  in  of  a  pleasantly  and  busily  occupied  Sunday 
in  May  (this  was  in  the  year  1881).  I  had  laid 
down  my  pen,  and  folded  my  notes  arid  papers,  and, 
seeing  a  copy  of  "  Paradise  Lost "  handy  on  the 
table,  I  laid  the  book  on  them  to  keep  them  intact 
during  my  absence,  which  was  to  attend  a  circle. 
The  book  in  question  may  have  invited  the  draft  of 
the  above  quotation  to  begin  with,  or  the  man  behind 
the  book ;  it  is  difficult  to  tell  the  exact  factors  of 
inspiration,  and  I  do  not  know,  in  this  connection,  as 
it  is  of  any  consequence. 

After  a  pleasant  and  somewhat  thoughtful  walk  of 
about  half  an  hour,  in  which  I  took  no  note  of  time, 
not  even  of  its  loss,  I  found  myself  at  the  medium's 
door.  This  was  Miss  Shelhamer's  home-circle  even- 
ing, not  for  visitors,  except  on  invitation,  and  I  was 


172  SHADOWS. 

one  of  the  privileged.  It  proved,  indeed,  a  privilege, 
and  enables  me  to  corroborate  the  return  of  a  friend 
whose  name  heads  this  article,  and  to  say,  also,  it  is 
one  of  the  most  perfect  identifications  of  an  individ- 
ual spirit  I  ever  had  or  ever  heard  of;  and  the  cir- 
cumstances in  connection  forbid  any  such  explanation 
as  mind-reading,  or  unconscious  cerebration,  as  is 
often  suggested,  at  least  by  those  who  strain  at  a 
gnat,  in  the  spiritual  manifestations,  and  swallow 
camels  in  other  matters.  Such  perfect  tests  of  iden- 
tification as  the  one  of  which  I  am  speaking  are  very 
rare,  comparatively,  among  experiences,  not  as  tests  of 
spirits,  but  tests  or  proofs  of  identification,  and,  there- 
fore, it  is  worthy  of  elaborate  record ;  and  that  is  my 
apology  for  the  space  I  occupy. 

I  do  not  know  as  it  is  wise  or  sensible  to  begin  as 
I  have  in  this  somewhat  poetical  manner;  but  it 
expresses  the  state  of  my  feelings,  and,  may  be,  an 
impression ;  I  do  not  say  it  is,  but  it  reminds  me  of 
"Junius."  Speaking  of  the  eagle,  he  says:  "The 
feather  that  adorns  the  royal  bird  sustains  his  flight ; 
strip  him  of  his  plumage,  and  you  pin  him  to  the 
earth."  I  trust,  then,  the  "plumage"  of  this  arti- 
cle, if  there  should  be  any,  will  be  forgiven.  How 
much  my  occupation  during  the  day  had  to  do  with 
the  sentimentality  of  the  hour,  or  how  much  it  had 
to  do  with  the  fact  that  made  this  occasion  a  privi- 
lege, I  will  not  undertake  to  say.  I  think  we  some- 
times accidentally  make  conditions  that  are  not 
always  at  our  command  on  call ;  that  is  my  apology 
now  for  being  so  minute. 


IDENTIFICATION   OF   SPIRITS.  173 

The  day  had  been  wholly  spent  in  ray  study, — 
my  books,  papers,  pigeon-hole  contents,  and  corre- 
spondence around  me,  and,  to  some  extent,  in  me; 
it  had  been  a  sort  of  "washing-day"  in  my  lit- 
erary life.  Our  thoughts,  you  know,  have  queer 
ways  of  reaching  us ;  autographic  suggestions  not 
only  carry  memories  with  them,  but  they  carry 
presences  also.  How  much,  then,  of  my  da}T's 
thoughtful  occupation  had  to  do  with  the  connection 
made  with  my  Texan  friend  I  do  not  know ;  per- 
haps my  condition  was  not  in  any  sense  a  factor  ;  but 
I  feel  impressed  to  begin  in  this  way,  and  even  to 
call  to  my  aid,  in  the  way,  perhaps,  of  superfluous 
"plumage,"  the  sweet,  orphic  lines  of  Emerson,  in 
suggestion  of  connections  that  exist,  that  are  not 
always  prima  facie,  where  the  poet  says :  — 

"And  on  his  miml  at  dawn  of  day 
Soft  shadows  of  the  evening  lay; 
For  the  prevision  is  allied 
Unto  the  thing  so  signified. 
Or  say,  the  foresight  that  awaits 
Is  the  same  genius  that  creates." 

Before  giving  the  circumstances  in  connection  with 
the  communication  that  has  inspired  this  article,  I 
will  first  briefly  speak  of  the  man  and  his  association 
with  me,  and  our  correspondential  intimacy. 

J.  S.  Thrasher,  whose  initials  were  autographically 
and  typographically  and  indelibly  during  my  life  im- 
pressed on  my  mind  as  /.  S.  Thrasher,  was  a  rare 
man,  and,  I  think,  had  a  toning  influence  on  my 
style  of  expression.  The  initials  of  which  I  have 


174  SHADOWS. 

spoken  are  an  important  item  in  this  statement,  and 
I  shall  refer  to  them  again  when  I  reach  the  proper 
place.  I  always  called  Mr.  Thrasher,  in  my  corre- 
spondence, the  "  Sage  of  Galveston,"  beginning  my 
letters :  "  My  Dear  Sage,"  and,  in  return,  I  suppose, 
he  always  began  his  letters  to  me  :  "  My  Dear  Philos- 
opher." I  became  very  much  attached  to  him,  and 
the  attachment  was  mutual. 

It  began  in  this  way:  Something  I  had  written 
had  attracted  his  attention,  and  he  wrote  to  me  inquir- 
ingly, and  the  reply  opened  a  correspondence  which 
has  not  ended,  it  now  seems,  with  his  life  in  the 
form.  I  have  a  box  —  it  is  now  before  me  —  of  about 
a  cubic  foot  in  dimensions,  full  of  his  letters  to  me. 
There  are  more  bright  thoughts,  wise  words,  good 
advice,  and  common  sense  in  them  than  can  be  found 
in  any  package  of  letters  that  I  know  of  with  an 
equal  number  of  words.  Our  pen-acquaintance  began 
in  1874.  My  attachment  to  him  was  not  because  he 
appreciated  my  articles,  for  he  was  much  more  of  a 
critic  than  a  patron.  I  used  to  think  oftener  of  what 
he  would  say,  when  I  was  writing  an  article,  than 
what  the  reading  public  would  say ;  there  was  where 
lie  toned  me  up,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he  is  now  say- 
ing: "Condense,  John,  condense,"  and  1  am  going 
to  after  this ;  but,  for  reasons  already  stated,  I  want 
the  privilege  of  superfluity  now,  for  I  feel  that  I  am 
writing  on  an  important  matter. 

The  "Sage  of  Galveston,"  as  I  still  like  to  call 
him,  was  a  man  of  wide  experience,  and  had  led  an 
active  life,  commercial,  political,  and  literary.  Some 


IDENTIFICATION  OF   SPIRITS.  175 

twenty  odd  years  ago  he  was  on  the  editorial  staff  of 
the  New  York  Herald,  occupying  the  position  several 
years.  He  was  born  in  New  England,  but  left  it 
when  a  young  man.  He  lived  at  the  South  the  latter 
part  of  his  life,  beginning  his  residence  there  before 
the  late  war ;  and  when  he  came  across  my  pathway, 
as  I  have  said,  some  six  or  seven  years  ago,  he  was 
and  had  been  long  a  resident  of  Galveston.  He 
was  then  a  Spiritualist,  had  lost  by  death  his  wife 
and  children,  so  his  home,  in  the  ordinary  sense,  was 
desolate.  His  aged  mother  lived  with  him,  and  she 
seemed  to  be  the  only  connecting  link  with  this  life. 
He  was  singularly  modest  and  retiring  for  so  full  a 
man,  and  was  very  happy  in  his  belief  in  Spiritual- 
ism. He  had  very  thoroughly  investigated  it,  and, 
being  satisfied,  he  stayed  satisfied,  living  the  life  that 
Spiritualism  teaches,  at  least  teaches  theoretically. 
I  trust  that  some  day,  as  our  truth  gets  incorporated 
into  humanity  more  generally,  there  will  be  more 
Thrashers  living  practical  lives  than  now,  so  that  it 
will  be  less  of  a  theory  and  more  of  a  life. 

The  "Sage"  had  great  practical  common  sense  in 
Spiritualism,  as  in  everything  else.  He  seemed  to 
know  where  he  was  going,  when  this  life  closed  in, 
more  intelligently  than  most  men  that  I  have  met, 
and  he  has  gone  there ;  and  now  tells  me,  as  his 
"message"  will  show,  that  "he  is  quite  comfort- 
able." How  natural  was  that  easy  way  of  saying  it ; 
so  like  him,  as  the  general  tenor  of  that  box  of  letters 
will  show.  He  put  himself  in  the  shape  to  take  life 
easy.  Having  made  up  his  mind,  in  his  lonely 


176  SHADOWS. 

domestic  state,  that  commerce  and  enterprise  would 
allure  him  no  more,  or  disturb  his  mind,  he  invested 
his  available  means  in  an  annuity  that  supported  him 
generously,  so  that  he  could  live  to  his  liking,  and 
have  something  for  charity,  and  be  hospitable,  as 
many  travelling  Spiritualists  can  testify. 

He  often  sent  for  mediums  to  visit  him ;  they 
became  residents  at  his  house  for  longer  or  shorter 
periods,  and  great  was  the  comfort  he  took  in  the 
manifestations  at  his  own  home  and  elsewhere.  Even 
the  account  of  them  gladdened  my  heart.  His  expe- 
riences and  wise  conclusions  have  helped  the  stability 
of  my  own  sensuous  experiences.  I  do  not  mean 
that  I  needed  his  evidences  to  indorse  mine,  but  it  is 
so  pleasant  to  find  bright,  scholarly,  cultured  minds 
in  accord  with  one's  own.  He  lived  with  the  spirits  ; 
he  seemed  to  fully  realize  that  he  had  invisible  com- 
pany. As  I  have  said,  commerce  and  business,  which 
once  allured  him,  had  no  attractions  for  him,  and, 
when  he  died,  the  competency  he  had  died  with  him. 
I  do  not  know  as  that  was  a  wise  investment,  but  I 
think  it  was  wise  for  him.  At  any  rate,  when  he 
died  he  was  not  weighted  with  the  ballast  of  wealth 
that  anchors  so  many  spirits  to  earth  after  their 
bodies  are  dead  and  buried.  It  was,  of  course,  a  mis- 
fortune to  have  been  left  alone,  death  taking  his 
family,  but  he  felt  always  near  them,  and  on  many 
important  occasions  they  were  vividly  manifest. 

He  visited  the  East  once  a  year  during  the  last 
three  years  of  his  life,  and  we  were  much  together 
during  these  three  visits.  When  last  here,  in  the 


IDENTIFICATION   OF   SPIRITS.  177 

summer  of  1879,  he  spent  a  few  months  in  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  State  for  his  health,  which  was  poor. 
Pie  was  then  alone  in  the  world,  his  aged  mother 
having  a  few  months  before  passed  on,  near  four- 
score-and-ten,  and  he  seemed  ready  to  go  himself, 
and  felt,  and  so  did  I,  that  he  was  near  the  end  of 
the  road ;  and  when  I  bade  him  good-bye  in  the  fall 
of  that  year,  as  he  left  for  the  South,  he  said,  as  he 
had  said  many  times  before,  "Au  revoir"  meaning 
that  he  would  manifest  at  the  earliest  opportunity, 
and  report  how  he  found  things.  He  has  now  done 
so,  at  least  in  a  measure,  and  to  me,  who  have  his 
letters,  that  tally  with  the  tenor  of  his  message,  the 
report  is  ample  and  satisfactory,  and  I  am  glad  he 
has  been,  and  is  to  be,  near  me ;  I  knew  it  before  he 
said  so.  I  am  glad  he  proposes  to  communicate 
again,  and  perhaps  continue,  and  thus,  though  the 
"  river  "  divides  us,  we  are  not  divided. 

In  getting  the  "  true  inwardness  "  of  this  identifi- 
cation the  reader  must  permit  me  to  refer  again  to 
his  initials.  He  signed  his  name  on  his  two  or  three 
hundred  letters  as  I.  S.  Thrasher.  Capital  I's  and  J's 
in  writing  are  often  written  alike,  but  in  addressing 
his  letters  to  me  the  J  in  John  was  a  J,  and  came 
below  the  line,  while  the  I  or  J  in  his  signature  did 
not,  but  was  written  exactly  as  he  wrote  the  per- 
sonal pronoun  I,  and  I  always  superscribed  my  let- 
ters to  him  I.  S.  Thrasher.  After  a  pen-acquaintance 
of  about  a  year,  I  noticed  his  name  printed  in  a  list  of 
small  contributions  in  a  newspaper,  "I.  S.  Thrasher, 
Galvestou,  $3.00,"  and  I  became  as  perfectly  satisfied 


178  SHADOWS. 

that  his  initial  letter  was  an  I  as  I  am  that  mine  is  a 
J.  There  was  no  occasion  for  settling  the  point,  for 
in  all  our  correspondence  he  spoke  of  me  as  the  Phil- 
osopher, and  I  addressed  him  as  the  Sage :  "  My 
Dear  Philosopher;"  "My  Dear  Sage."  The  dis- 
covery that  the  initial  letter  was  a  J,  as  this  article 
is  headed,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  spirit  knew  his 
own  name  better  than  I  did. 

I  have  written  a  pretty  long  introduction  or  episode, 
after  leaving  the  reader  at  the  door  of  Miss  Shelha- 
mer's  house  on  that  Sunday  evening  in  May;  but  the 
many  words  since  written  will  enable  me  to  be  both 
brief  and  intelligent  in  finishing  up  the  corroboration. 
I  do  not  propose  to  present  a  record  of  that  circle, 
only  that  which  bears  on  this  subject.  In  the  course 
of  the  evening  I  had  had  an  interesting  and  charac- 
teristic letter  from  the  spirit  of  Ralph  Huntington ; 
the  control  had  also  said  that  my  daughter  Ilattie 
and  sister  Adeline,  my  brother,  father  and  father-in- 
law  were  present;  therefore,  I  had  six  friends  among 
the  invisibles.  The  control  afterwards  said,  address- 
ing me:  "There  is  a  spirit  who  comes  to  you  and 
wants  to  be  recognized;  he  died  a  good  way  off  and 
many  months  ago."  I  said:  "Who  is  he?  what  is  his 
name?"  "  I  will  see  if  I  can  get  it,"  said  the  control; 
and  after  some  hesitation  said  something  that  sounded 
like  F rasher,  and  John  or  James;  but  as  I  knew  no 
James,  and  no  Frasher,  I  said:  "Cannot  some  of  my 
spirit  friends  tell  me  his  name?" 

The  spirit  said  he  had  tried  hard  to  manifest,  and 
had  promised  me  that  he  would,  and  the  control  said 


IDENTIFICATION   OF   SPIRITS.  170 

he  seemed  disappointed  and  persevering.  I  said: 
"Tell  the  spirit  to  come  to  the  Banner  circle,  and 
try  to  manifest  there  "  ;  and  the  control  said  he  would 
if  he  could.  A  little  while  after  this,  "Lotela"  con- 
trolled the  medium.  She  is  an  Indian  spirit  of  a 
lively  turn  of  mind,  and  she  said:  "  Wetherbee  chief, 
that  spirit  that  knows  you  is  here  still,  and  wants  to 
be  recognized."  I  said  I  wanted  the  recognition  as 
much  as  he  did,  and  I  was  sorry  I  was  so  stupid.  She 
then  said:  "I  see  four  large  letters  right  over  him 
and  you  —  S-A-G  E."  "Oh,"  said  I,  "the 'Sage  of 
Galveston,'  my  friend  Thrasher.  He  died  some  months 
ago,  and  promised  to  manifest  to  me  when  he  went 
over,  if  he  could." 

The  spirit  was  delighted  to  be  thus  recognized, 
and  I  still  more  so, —  for  it  was  so  impossible  for  our 
acquaintance  to  have  been  known  by  the  medium, 
and  the  cognomen  of  "Sage"  was  wholly  correspond- 
eutial  and  private.  This  was  an  extremely  interest- 
ing affair  to  me  ;  but  the  climax  was  the  message  that 
came  from  him  shortly  after  at  the  Banner  circle. 

I  went  to  the  circle.  I  do  not  go  often;  have  not 
the  time;  was  detained  down  town  one  afternoon  to 
meet  a  friend  late,  and  so  went  to  the  circle  to  pass 
the  time,  and  the  message  published  in  the  last  Ban- 
ner of  Light  was  given.  Very  few  people  —  not  more 
than  one  or  two  —  in  this  city  knew  Mr.  Thrasher, 
or  of  our  close  correspondential  relations,  and  I  do  not 
believe  a  living  soul  in  the  world  knows  that  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  addressing  me  as  "My  Dear  Philos- 
opher," and  that  makes  it  a  test.  He  refers  to  me,  as 


180  SHADOWS. 

will  be  seen  by  his  message,  as  his  friend  and  philos- 
opher, and  I  can  show  over  two  hundred  letters  from 
him,  beginning  "My  Dear  Philosopher,"  or  referring 
to  me  as  his  philosopher  and  friend,  which  is  a  feat- 
ure in  that  message.  The  general  contents,  also,  are 
such  as  to  be  unmistakably  his  to  anyone  who  knew 
the  tenor  of  our  intercourse.  Above  and  beyond 
this  internal  evidence  is  what  I  shall  hereafter  say  of 
his  message  which  frees  the  communication  from  any 
suspicion  of  mind-reading  on  the  part  of  the  spirit 
that  would  have  made  him,  possibly,  an  alias. 

Oh,  how  my  heart  died  within  me  when  he  closed 
the  message  thus :  "  You  may  say  it  is  from  J.  S. 
Thrasher,  of  Galveston,  Texas,  to  his  philosopher 
friend,  John  Wetherbee,  of  Boston."  The  J  broke 
my  heart.  Everything  else  was  perfect.  I  don't 
know  what  I  would  have  given  to  have  had  that 
spoken  an  I,  in  giving  his  name,  instead  of  a  J.  I 
felt  and  knew  it  came  from  my  Galveston  friend,  but 
why  spirits  so  often  get  twisted  on  some  trifle  that 
the  man  himself  never  would  mistake  if  he  were  in 
the  form,  but  a  spirit  often  does,  is  one  of  the  uiiac- 
countables. 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  message  and  the  cir- 
cumstances as  being  from  my  friend,  the  "Sage,"  but 
the  J  coming,  intead  of  an  I,  led  me  into  a  careful 
investigation,  and  I  spent  three  evenings  carefully 
reading  his  letters,  and,  to  my  great  joy,  I  found  two 
of  them  out  of  the  lot  signed  with  a  J.  That  settled 
all  the  other  I's  to  be  J's,  and  in  one  letter,  where  he 
was  quoting  something  of  mine,  and  putting  his  own 


IDENTIFICATION   OF   SPIRITS.  181 

version  also,  he  put  at  the  end  of  mine  as  author,  J. 
W.,  and  at  the  end  of  his,  J.  S.  T.  Before  I  had  dis- 
covered the  fact,  I  wrote  South  to  a  friend  for  infor- 
mation, and  have  received  a  reply  that  his  initial 
letter  was  J,  as  his  friend  writes  me  in  reply  to  mine, 
that  his  name  was  John  S.  Thrasher.  So  it  seems 
the  spirit  was  right,  and  I  was  wrong.  If,  on  the 
evening  that  I  spent  at  Miss  Shelhamer's  circle,  I  had 
known  this — that  his  initial  letter  was  a  J  —  I  would 
probably  have  made  my  connection  with  him  more 
readily ;  and  when  the  spirit  was  saying  John  and 
James,  and  approximating  to  a  Thrasher  by  saying 
Frasher,  I  would  not  have  had  to  wait  for  the  "  Sage" 
suggestion  before  I  recognized  him ;  but  in  the  end 
it  was  all  for  the  best. 

I  may  not  have  succeeded  in  making  this  as  clear 
as  I  could  wish,  as  there  is  so  much  esoteric  in  its 
nature  not  convertible  into  exoteric  without  an 
unwarranted  elaboration,  but  to  me  it  covers  the 
whole  ground,  and  I  must  ask  the  reader  to  take  the 
unspoken  and  unspeakable  minutiie  on  my  say-so, 
and  believe  my  ipse  dixit  when  I  say  it  is  conclusive. 


XVII. 

UNKNOWN  QUANTITIES. 

Prime  factors.  —  Philosophical   musings   on  human 
happiness. 

Modern  Spiritualism,  teaching  as  it  does  great 
duration  to  human  existence,  even  conscious  person- 
ality in  perpetuity,  it  should  teach  us  also  how  to 
insure  the  best  conditions  for  such  an  existance, 
having  an  eye  to  happiness.  As  "  one  man's  meat " 
—  so  the  proverb  says  —  "is  another  man's  poison," 
so,  in  a  sense,  one  man's  happiness  may  be  another 
man's  misery.  So  I  do  not  propose  to  write  an  essay 
on  happiness,  or  on  the  conditions  to  insure  it ;  but, 
being  in  a  musing  frame  of  mind,  I  will  jot  down  a 
few  thoughts  that  the  subject  seems  to  suggest. 

I  have  had  my  happy  hours  and  my  sad  hours.  I 
suppose  most  everyone  can  say  the  same,  but  that 
need  not  hinder  my  saying  it.  Considering  that  my 
health  through  life  has  been  remarkably  good,  I 
ought  to  score  it  on  the  side  of  happiness  as  a  whole, 
and  so  I  do.  Human  happiness,  it  seems  to  me,  is 
mainly  a  constitutional  quality.  "  Men,"  says  Emer- 
son, "  are  what  their  mothers  made  them  ;  "  that  is, 

182 


UNKNOWN  QUANTITIES.  183 

when  a  man  is  born  the  gate  of  gifts  is  closed.  Pine 
may  harden  with  care,  or  outward  application,  but  it 
never  can  become  oak,  nor  the  latter,  by  any  process, 
become  pine.  There  is  the  same  inherent  differences 
in  human  nature.  We  can  grow  advantageously  or 
disadvantageously  by  conditions,  more  or  less  at  our 
command,  but  pine  is  always  pine,  and  oak  oak. 

I  know  of  a  family  of  four  children  ;  they  are 
adults  or  dead  now ;  but,  with  my  ideas,  they  are 
living,  two  in  the  form,  and  two  as  spirits  ;  but  I  will 
use  all  four  as  an  illustration,  as  I  know  them  well, 
and  they  seem  to  fit  my  case.  The  oldest  was  born 
of  a  happy  mother,  whose  years  of  grief  had  not 
arrived,  and  he  manifested  cheerfulness  all  his  days, 
even  under  adverse  circumstances.  Misfortune  came 
upon  this  family,  and  the  second  child,  gestating 
under  home  sadness,  was  sad  and  pensive  all  her 
life ;  very  fascinating,  but  soberly  beautiful  even  in 
her  adolescent  years,  she  was  not  a  diffuser  of  joy  or 
sunshine,  but  was  the  product  of  her  mother's  con- 
dition. 

The  sun  came  out  of  the  cloud  again  in  that  fam- 
ily, and  the  home  was  radient  with  light  and  joy, 
and  the  third  child,  born  in  that  sunshine,  was 
sparkling  and  bright,  a  joy  in  the  house  all  her  days, 
shedding  happiness  wherever  she  went.  Then  came 
trouble  and  misfortune  to  that  family,  and  a  broken 
household,  and  the  fourth  baby  was  a  child  of  grief 
all  his  days.  There  were  rises  and  falls  in  their  sev- 
eral thermometers  of  happiness,  but  the  tenor  of  their 
lives  show  correctly  their  ante-natal  conditions.  They 


184  SHADOWS. 

all  lived  until  at  least  the  high  noon  of  adult  life,  and 
two  of  them,  as  we  have  said,  are  still  in  the  form, 
as  elderly  people.  This  episode  will  explain,  with- 
out a  long  dissertation,  what  I  mean  when  I  say 
human  happiness  is  more  of  a  constitutional  than  an 
acquired  quality. 

With  the  foregoing  remarks  as  an  introduction,  I 
will  go  on  and  say  it  takes  a  combination  of  quali- 
ties to  make  happiness,  —  we  might  say  qualities 
innumerable.  They  can,  however,  be  reduced  to  a 
few.  We  will  call  them  "prime  factors."  People 
are  very  differently  constituted ;  one  often  wanting 
what  another  possesses ;  but,  we  think,  no  one  would 
make  an  entire  change  with  another,  our  personality 
has  such  a  perpetual  interest  in  our  being.  We  will 
let  the  poet  express  our  thought  instead  of  doing  it 
ourselves,  by  quoting  from  Pope  :  — 

"  Whate'er  the  passion,  knowledge,  fame,  or  pelf, 
No  one  will  change  his  neighbor  with  himself, 
The  learned  is  happy  nature  to  explore; 
The  fool  is  happy  that  he  knows  no  more; 
The  rich  is  happy  in  the  plenty  given ; 
The  poor  contents  him  with  the  care  of  heaven." 

This  quotation  is  poetry,  but  I  do  not  indorse  it  as 
even  approximately  true,  but  it  is  suggestive  of  truth. 
While  none  are  perfectly  happy,  and,  of  course, 
some  are  happier  than  others,  we  think  it  would  be 
found,  if  there  was  any  way  of  finding  it  out,  that 
happiness  is  more  equally  divided  than  anything 
else  in  the  distribution  of  gifts  in  human  life ;  cer- 
tainly more  than  in  the  great  essentials, —  such  as 


UNKNOWN  QUANTITIES.  185 

health,  wealth,  genius,  or  position.  It  will  be  a 
rather  arbitrary  supposition  ;  but  suppose  we  fix  the 
number  of  "prime  factors"  of  human  happiness  at 
ten.  This,  however,  is  no  more  arbitrary  than  the 
use  of  x  for  an  unknown  quantity,  though  I  hardly 
expect  to  find  its  value,  like  a  sum  in  algebra,  for 
human  nature  is  not  a  branch  of  mathematics  as  yet. 
Though  fixing  the  "  prime  factors  "  of  human  hap- 
piness at  ten  and  definite,  they  necessarily  blend, 
run  into  each  other,  like  the  primary  colors  of  a  ray 
of  light.  Disintegrated  by  the  prism,  these  "  prime 
factors,"  just  like  colors,  are  often,  and,  necessarily, 
complementary.  The  solar  spectrum  is  a  good  analo- 
gous illustration  of  our  point,  human  happiness 
being  the  ray  of  white  light.  Apply  the  mental 
prism  to  the  ray  of  happiness,  and  the  rainbow  of  life 
stratifies  into  the  supposed  ten  primaries,  or  "prime 
factors ; "  or  that  is  our  scale  or  spectrum,  for  the 
sake  of  lucidity,  perhaps,  as  we  have  said,  somewhat 
arbitrary.  We  would  designate  them  thus :  — 

1.  Goodness.  6.  Contentment. 

•2.  Health.  7.  Success. 

3.  Hope.  8.  Popularity. 

4.  Home.  9.  Social  Position. 

5.  Industry.  10.  Wealth. 

Perhaps  a  little  consecutive  elaboration  may  be  of 
advantage  here.  What  we  mean  by 

G-oodness,  not  religion,  for  a  man  may  be  religious 
without  being  good ;  not  virtue,  but  it  includes  that. 
It  means  living  for  others  as  well  as  for  one's  self. 


186  SHADOWS. 

Many  of  the  other  factors  of  happiness  are  born  of 
this  one. 

Health. — Parent  of  virtue.  Without  it  all  the 
ten  spokes  of  the  wheel  of  happiness  rattle  in  their 
revolution.  While  one  man  with  many  gifts  is  lower 
in  the  scale  of  happiness,  and  another,  with  the  same 
or  less,  is  higher,  the  fact  is  due  often  to  one's  health. 
A  man  can  afford  to  be  marked  low  on  many  of  the 
factors  of  happiness  if  health  can  be  marked  high 
thereby. 

Hope  is  one  of  the  great  essentials  of  happiness. 
Hope  without  success  (material  or  otherwise)  is  bet- 
ter than  success  without  hope, — just  as  a  rich  poor 
man  is  happier  than  a  poor  rich  man.  Cheerfulness 
is  one  of  the  children  of  hope.  Too  much  hope  leads 
often  to  disappointment ;  but  there  is  the  compensa- 
tion ;  it  saves  a  soul  from  despair,  and  hides  a  multi- 
tude of  sorrows.  A  man  had  better  lose  everything 
than  hope. 

"jHorae,  sweet  home,  there  is  no  place  like  home  ! " 
when  goodness,  cheerfulness,  and  harmony  abound. 
Blessed  are  they  who  have  it.  Money,  popularity,  or 
position  is  no  substitute  for  it. 

Industry. —  Occupation,  something  to  do,  a  disin- 
clination to  be  idle.  If  success  in  the  pursuits  of 
life  leads  to  rest  or  idleness,  better  remain  poor  and 
industrious,  or  die.  Most  men  require  the  stimulus 
of  active  business  or  trade  to  keep  them  employed. 
With  success  they  would  be  without  occupation  ;  an 
afternoon  of  rest  is  a  life  of  unhappiness.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  be  on  a  tread-mill  than  to  rust. 


UNKNOWN  QUANTITIES.  187 

Contentment  is  better  than  wealth.  It  is  a  consti- 
tutional rather  than  an  acquired  quality.  To  be 
satisfied  is  great  gain.  Happy  are  they  who  can  look 
out  of  humble  homes  and  cheap  joys  on  palaces  and 
equipage,  and  heave  no  sighs. 

Success.  —  This  word  has  no  necessary  relation  to 
money  or  trade  in  this  connection.  A  man  may  be 
a  success  without  being  a  millionaire.  Henry  D. 
Thoreau  was  a  success,  though  he  died  poor ;  so  was 
Publicola;  but  Croesus  was  not,  nor  many  modern 
ones  that  could  be  named,  though  they  had  wealth. 
Who  would  not  prefer  to  be  Agassiz,  without  wealth, 
than  Jim  Fisk  with  ? 

Popularity.  —  Most  people  like  to  stand  well  with 
their  fellows.  Few  are  indifferent  to  approbation. 
One  of  the  accented  motives  for  gaining  wealth  is  to 
impress  others ;  to  be  in  their  eyes  of  some  conse- 
quence. The  popularity  born  of  goodness  and  cheer- 
fulness is  more  to  be  desired  than  that  born  of  wealth. 
The  former  has  a  heavenly  flavor,  the  latter  an 
earthly  one. 

Social  Position.  — "  A  man  's  a  man  for  a'  that, 
and  a'  that."  Worth  makes  the  man,  and  not  posi- 
tion. Still,  hereditary  competency,  the  refinements 
and  comforts  of  genteel  (not  snobbish)  life,  are  by 
no  means  small  matters  to  be  born  into,  or  grow 
into.  Patrician  and  plebeian  have  a  recognized  dis- 
tinction :  money  will  not  buy  the  one,  or  the  want  of 
it  impose  the  other. 

Wealth  is  the  grandest  servant  in  life  to  a  wise 
man.  It  is  often  a  hard  master,  and  keeps  one 


188  SHADOWS. 

awake  nights.  The  ninety  out  of  the  hundred  have 
to  be  happy  without  it ;  the  ten  who  have  it  are  not 
always  happy  thereby.  The  problem  is  solved  that 
the  most  happiness,  as  far  as  this  factor  is  concerned, 
lies  in  the  mean  between  poverty  and  wealth.  Robert 
Burns  hints  at  the  true  idea  when  he  says :  — 

"  Not  for  to  hide  it  in  a  hedge, 
Nor  for  a  train  attendant ; 
But  for  the  glorious  privilege 
Of  being  independent." 

It  is  my  opinion,  as  the  truth  of  modern  Spiritual- 
ism becomes  incorporated  in  the  mind  of  mankind, 
in  the  same  way  as  some  of  the  other  laws  of  nature 
have, —  not  looking  forward  to  a  future  life  simply  as 
a  matter  of  sentiment,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact, — it 
will  lead  to  a  fairer  distribution  of  what  are  called 
the  essentials  in  this  life ;  mankind  will  tend  to  lay  up 
more  enduring  treasures  than  they  do  now, —  those 
that  they  can  carry  with  them  into  the  land  of  souls. 
That  certainly  is  the  logic  of  the  thought ;  the  prac- 
tical short-coming  is  the  measure  of  a  man's  doubt 
or  belief. 


XVIIT. 

ALLEN  DOLE. 

A  reliable  family  tradition  that  amounts  almost  to  a 
personal  experience. 

The  following  incident  may  be  of  interest  enough 
to  relate ;  at  any  rate  it  will  not  take  long  to  do  it. 
In  my  very  early  childhood  there  was  an  old  relative 
of  mine,  whom  I  will  call  Allen  Dole.  I  am  not  fully 
sure  whether  I  remember  him,  or  only  think  I  do, 
having  heard  so  much  of  him  traditionally  from  the 
old  members  of  our  family.  At  any  rate,  he  died 
when  I  was  very  young,  and  what  I  have  to  say  of 
him  would  be  traditional,  whether  I  can  recollect  him, 
or  whether  the  stories  had  been  told  so  often  that 
they  had  taken  the  form  in  me  of  experiences.  It 
makes  no  difference,  however,  as  what  I  am  going  to 
say  is  perfectly  reliable,  and  told  to  me  and  spoken  of 
before  me,  and  continued  to  be  spoken  of  by  several 
of  the  old  familiar  faces  of  those  days,  even  until  I 
had  almost  reached  manhood,  so  I  relate  it  with  all 
the  confidence  I  would  if  it  were  my  own  experience, 
or  if  I  had  been  one  of  those  old  folks  myself. 

As  I  have  already  written  this  circumstance  out, 

169 


190  SHADOWS. 

and  printed  it  in  an  article  on  "  Dormitory  Thoughts" 
as  one  of  the  illustrations  of  the  subject,  I  will  copy 
it  as  therein  written,  instead  of  recomposing  it. 
The  article  referred  to  is  as  follows :  — 

"  Who  would  have  thought  such  darkness  lay  concealed 
Within  thy  beams,  O  Sun !  or  who  could  find, 
While  fly,  and  leaf,  and  insect  are  revealed, 
That  to  such  countless  orbs  thou  mad'st  us  blind ! 
Why  do  we  then  shun  death  with  anxious  strife  ? 
If  Light  could  thus  deceive,  wherefore  not  Life  ?  " 

Coleridge  thought  these  lines  the  best  in  the  Eng- 
lish language.  They  may  be;  that  is  a  matter  of 
taste ;  but  the  thought  conveyed  in  them  is  certainly 
both  hopeful  and  suggestive,  and  so  is  a  good  intro- 
duction to  what  I  have  to  say  in  this  dormitory 
effort. 

I  think  it  will  not  be  a  digression  if  I  relate  an 
incident  that  has  always  interested  me,  and  is  not 
irrational  by  the  view  I  take  of  sleep-life  in  these 
articles.  A  relative  of  mine,  whom  I  will  call  Allen 
Dole,  who  died  quite  an  old  man  when  I  was  a  youth, 
had,  during  his  adult  life,  periodical  spells  of  inebria- 
tion lasting  a  day  or  two,  then  followed  months  of 
creditable  sobriety.  Except  for  this  one  failing  he 
was  a  very  estimable  man.  When  this  irresistible 
thirst  came  on  he  had  to  have  his  spree,  if  it  could  be 
called  one,  for  he  knew  when  it  was  coming  on,  and 
deliberately  prepared  for  it,  passing  the  dark  season 
quietly  all  by  himself  in  his  own  room;  hence  his 
weakness  was  not  generally  known  to  the  outside 
world. 


ALLEN  DOLE.  191 

On  one  occasion,  coming  among  us  after  one  of 
these  retirements,  he  said  he  had  had  a  very  singular 
dream,  which  lasted  a  good  while.  "  It  was  more 
than^a  dream,"  said  he ;  "there  was  something  unusu- 
ally real  about  it."  His  brother  knowing  his  habit, 
said :  "  Oh,  you  were  only  balmy,  perhaps  out  of  your 
head."  Allen,  finding  a  more  hospitable  disposition 
in  the  rest  of  us,  related  it,  saying  he  felt  then  under 
its  influence,  as  if  he  had  just  returned  from  a  long 
journey.  That  was  natural  enough,  we  all  thought, 
though  we  did  not  say  so,  but  listened  attentively  to 
the  narration  of  it,  which  was  about  as  follows:  — 

"  A  person  of  angelic  appearance  came  and  awoke 
me  and  said;  'Allen,  I  want  you  to  go  with  me.'  I 
did  not  feel  much  surprised,  and  prepared  to  go  as  a 
matter  of  course.  I  was  rather  attracted  to  this  vis- 
itant from  the  land  of  souls.  I  say  this  from  what 
followed.  I  found  myself  moving  along  with  this 
messenger, —  without  any  mechanical  effort  I  seemed 
to  be  gliding  along,  as  it  were,  in  his  company.  This 
movement  seemed  to  excite  in  me  no  surprise  nor 
expectation.  I  paid  no  attention  to  any  surround- 
ings ;  but  as  I  call  the  vision  now  to  rny  mind,  I 
seemed  to  be  in  a  misty  or  cloudy  envelope,  my  com- 
panion, not  my  progress,  being  my  attraction. 

"After  moving  along  in  this  way  for  some  time,  the 
misty  surroundings  having  grown  into  a  more  beau- 
tiful light,  my  companion  said  to  me:  'Here  we  are, 
Allen.'  I  don't  know  when  our  locomotion  changed  ; 
but  at  this  time  we  were  walking  quickly  over  the 
soft,  velvet-like,  grassy  turf,  and  it  seemed  to  be  now 


192  SHADOWS. 

the  auroral  splendor  of  a  new  and  magnificent  morn- 
ing, and  all  the  landscape  was  in  harmony  with  it. 
It  seemed  to  be  the  most  beautiful  place  I  was  ever 
in,  and,  while  feasting  my  eyes  on  the  natural  attrac- 
tions of  the  locality,  I  found  I  was  in  the  midst  of  a 
large  gathering  of  very  happy  people.  It  seemed  to 
be  a  festival.  I  felt  and  breathed  pleasure  in  the 
happy  atmosphere  that  environed  me.  I  felt  at  home, 
—  that  is,  I  did  not  feel  like  a  stranger,  nor  did  these 
happy  people  seem  to  consider  me  one,  or  as  a  new- 
comer. The  situation,  as  I  now  think  of  it,  seems 
strange  to  me,  but  it  did  not  then. 

"  One  thing  was  very  singular,  but  even  that  excited 
no  surprise ;  the  faces  of  all  these  people  were  the 
faces  of  the  departed,  the  vanished  lights  of  human 
life,  the  still  living  forms  of  the  loved  and  lost.  Some 
of  them  had  died  before  I  was  born  ;  but  I  knew  who 
they  were  just  as  well  as  I  did  those  who  had  been 
the  remembered  faces  of  by-gone  days,  and  many  of 
them  were  those  whom  I  had  followed  to  the  grave; 
but  they  were  all  alive,  as  much  so  as  I  was  then, 
myself.  But  what  surprises  me  now  is  that,  finding 
all  these  dead  faces  alive,  it  did  not  surprise  me  then. 
There  was  Lucinda  (who  had  died  about  a  year 
before),  not  the  emaciated  young  woman  that  con- 
sumption had  had  so  long  in  its  grasp,  but  the  picture 
of  health  and  youthful  activity.  In  the  words  of  the 
poet : — 

"  It  did  not  seem  irrational,  or  queer, 

To  thus  confabulate  in  common  speech 
With  this  old  friend  who  had  been  dead  a  year, — 

Strange  things  these  dreams,  and  sometimes  wisdom  teach." 


ALLEN   DOLE.  193 

"  Not  one  of  my  living  friends  was  there ;  not  one 
of  you"  (addressing  us).  "If  I  had  met  any  living 
faces  there,  I  do  not  think  they  would  have  seemed 
strange  to  me  any  more  than  it  did  to  be  there  myself; 
but  if  I  had,  and  remembered  the  fact  now,  as  I  do 
the  vision,  or  dreamy  experience,  I  should  consider 
it  ominous,  or  prophetic  of  dissolution.  I  would  feel 
now  that  that  person  was  soon  to  be  called  home." 

This  is  enough  to  relate  of  Allen's  account.  There 
were  other  details  of  no  general  interest,  so  I  will 
only  add  that  after  Allen  had  been  there  what  seemed 
quite  a  long  time,  his  mother,  who,  with  others,  was 
very  near  him,  said  it  was  time  to  go ;  but  Allen  was 
reluctant;  said  he  preferred  to  stay.  She  said :  "  No, 
you  must  go  now  ;  but  in  fifteen  years  you  will  come 
again,  and  then  stay  all  the  time,  like  the  rest  of  us." 
I  will  add  that  Allen  died  in  about  fifteen  years.  It 
was  always  said  by  aunt  Fales,  whose  memory  was 
good  on  superstitious  matters,  that  he  died  exactly 
fifteen  years  from  the  date  of  that  vision.  If  that 
was  the  case,  or  even  if  only  an  approximation,  there 
was  prevision,  as  well  as  method,  in  the  circumstances 
of  that  somewhat  singular  dream,  which,  as  Allen 
said,  was  something  more  than  a  dream. 

I  do  not  know  as  this  traditional  family  incident 
has  any  general  bearing  on  the  subject  of  this  book 
of  "Shadows,"  unless  to  make  it  more  in  keeping 
with  its  title;  yet  a  matter  —  whether  dream  or 
vision— occurring  near  a  century  ago,  and  fifty  years 
almost  before  the  advent  of  modern  Spiritualism,  and 
giving  a  picture  of  the  future  life  so  different  from  the 


194  SHADOWS. 

notion  prevalent  at  that  time,  and  so  in  keeping  with 
the  teachings  of  modem  Spiritualism,  that  it  at  least 
is  a  pointer,  even  if  the  prophetical  part  of  it  may 
have  been  a  little  strained. 

The  circumstance  so  believed  in  by  the  old 
people  of  our  house,  who  have  long  since  passed 
beyond  the  vale,  made  quite  an  impression  upon  me, 
as  one  of  the  facts  in  my  early  life.  I  think,  also, 
modern  Spiritualism  has  somehow  tended  to  keep  the 
old  familiar  faces  of  by-gone  days  in  more  close 
remembrance  than  if  I  had  believed  that  dead  people 
were  dead  when  they  had  "  shuffled  off  the  mortal 
coil."  With  some  such  ideas  as  I  am  expressing 
now,  I  put  the  foregoing  incident  into  simple  verse 
a  long  time  ago,  which  I  will  add  for  the  sake  of 
making  this  chapter  of  a  respectable  length,  although 
it  is  a  repetition  of  what  has  been  already  told  in  the 
foregoing  account :  — 

Here  in  this  churchyard's  melancholy  shade 
Sepulchral  stones  stand  thickly  planted  round ; 

My  wandering  footsteps  hitherward  have  strayed 
To  read  the  names  of  tenants  under  ground. 

The  dove  there  perched  on  yonder  slab  oblique, 
Swerved  from  its  line  by  many  a  frosty  year, 

Seems  sensing  sentiment  it  fain  would  speak, 
And  accents  well  the  thought  to  wanderers  here. 

On  that  same  slab  was  chiseled  "Allen  Dole;" 
The  year  he  died,  his  death  also,  and  age : 

The  grass  was  pulled  aside  to  read  the  whole, 
But  nothing  found  of  his  illumined  page. 

Tliat  was  not  written  on  this  old  grave-stone, 
Where  crawling  ivy  covers  it  from  sight, 


ALLEN  DOLE.  195 

But  told  in  solemn  words  to  me  alone 
How  Allen  saw  the  world  of  spirits  bright. 

Now  day  is  closing  for  the  coming  night, 
And  memories  sad,  like  phantoms,  come  and  go; 

The  dove  has  flown ;  the  fire-flies  show  their  light, 
With  thoughts  of  people  whom  we  used  to  know. 

With  evening,  shadows  come  of  actions  done 
In  hours  when  sunlight  leaves  no  passing  trace; 

But  retrospection  calls  back  one  by  one, 
And  gives  in  sober  thought  to  each  its  place. 

In  dim  forgetfulness,  how  apt  to  hide 
The  selfishness  that  marks  most  all  our  acts ! 

But  in  this  evening  hour  their  shadows  glide 
Unbidden  to  the  mind, —  the  naked  facts. 

But  Allen  flanked  this  thoughtful  evening  school : 

A  glass  of  rum  in  him  made  evening  day; 
So  all  the  morning  hours  he'd  play  the  fool, 

Driving  reflection's  warning  voice  away. 

But  Allen's  cares  increased  as  time  unrolled : 

His  early  life  grew  indistinct  with  years, 
And  manhood's  record  blurred  as  he  grew  old, — 

He  found  the  world  at  last  a  vale  of  tears. 

Then  hearken  well !    The  hour  will  come  to  all, 
When  time,  so  fleeting,  whispers  "sands  are  low!" 

Few  may  forecast,  and  anxious  wait  the  call, 
As  Allen  did,  who,  smiling,  said  "  I  go." 

But  Allen  grieved  not  as  he  neared  fourscore, 
Though  friends  were  few,  and  end  of  days  so  near; 

For  he  had  been  upon  that  other  shore, 

And  talked  with  angels  in  their  happy  spliere. 

Once  Allen  saw  his  body  sound  asleep  I 
Perhaps  't  was  rum  that  dualized  his  sight? 

He  saw  the  angels  who  their  vigils  keep 
While  others  led  him  to  that  world  of  light. 


196  SHADOWS. 

O  beauteous  sky  and  ralnbowed  atmosphere  I 
The  grass  was  soft  and  frescoed  bright  with  flowers ; 

The  air  so  balmy, —  music  soft  and  clear 
Mingled  with  all.     Oh,  happy,  joyful  hours ! 

He  saw  that  face  who  watched  his  infant  years, 
And  other  loved  ones,  buried  long  ago; 

Brightly  transfigured  everyone  appears ; 
Frail  Susan,  also,  whom  he  used  to  know. 

They  moved  a  slide,  and  let  him  have  one  sight 
Of  that  dread  place  called  "spirit-quarantine," 

Where  sinners  stay  whole  ages,  dark  as  night, 
To  expurgate  the  beast  from  man  divine. 

They  told  him  then  that  he  must  homeward  go ; 

But  Allen  felt  inclined  to  linger  there  : 
To  save  the  quarantine,  they  let  him  know, 

T  were  better  to  deodorize  elsewhere. 

They  said  to  Allen,  who  was  fifty-five, 
That  fifteen  years  would  fill  his  earthly  score; 

His  seventieth  year  would  find  him  just  alive, 
The  hungry  graveyard  knocking  at  his  door. 

Why  should  this  man  be  blest  with  such  a  sight 
While  saints  go  mourning  all  their  days  of  earth? 

We  cannot  judge.     God  doeth  all  things  right; 
Perhaps  old  Allen's  thirst  was  heritage  from  birth. 

Then  draw  the  veil,  should  profanation  seek 
To  read  the  list  of  Allen's  reckless  days ; 

But  let  his  later  living  record  speak 
How  spirit-quarantine  reformed  his  ways. 

Now  thoughtfully  our  footfalls  homeward  bound, 

And  homeward,  also,  to  eternal  light; 
While  here  night's  mantle  overshades  the  ground, — 

We  wait  expectant  for  a  world  that 's  bright. 


XIX. 

INDIAN-SPIRIT   INFLUENCES. 

What  the  subject  suggests,  and  a  supplement  of  poetry. 
— Astronomical. 

One  of  the  noticeable  features  in  the  phenomena  of 
modern  Spiritualism  is  the  prominence  it  gives  to  the 
departed  Indian  race.  There  is  hardly  a  medium  in 
this  whole  Endoric  class  that  is  not  more  or  less  guided 
by,  controlled  by,  or  indebted  to  the  departed  Oseolas, 
Black  Hawks,  Red  Jackets,  Violets,  or  Blueflowers  of 
that  singular  aboriginal  people  that  once  covered,  in 
their  wild  and  natural  way,  this  North  American  Con- 
tinent. I  have  sometimes  thought,  as  this  spiritual 
movement,  in  its  modern  aspect,  is  of  American 
genesis,  that  one  of  the  prime  factors,  perhaps  the 
accented  one  that  has  made  this  modern  connection 
with  mortals  in  the  form,  was  the  influence  and 
power  of  the  Indian  element  in  its  departed,  invisi- 
ble, but  still  living  form. 

I  am  aware  that  history  indicates  that,  if  these 
phenomena  be  the  influence  of  the  spirits  of  departed 
human  beings,  though  called  modern,  they  are  quite 
an  ancient  affair;  but,  in  its  uninterpreted  state,  was 

107 


198  SHADOWS. 

kept  in  the  domain  of  either  superstition  or  revela- 
tion, but  only  in  this  age  has  it  been  recognized  as 
intelligent  sensuous  phenomena. 

I  am  inclined  to  think,  as  I  have  said,  that  we  are 
very  much  indebted  to  the  Indian  element  in  the 
spirit  world  for  the  light  that  was  intelligently 
revealed  to  us  in  1848.  Perhaps  owing  to  the  natu- 
ral way  they  lived  when  in  the  form,  it  gave  them  a 
strength  or  power  that  a  more  artificial  life  would 
not,  so  that  even  in  spirit  life  one  can  say  that  "it 
is  an  ill  wind  that  blows  no  one  any  good,"  and 
thus  we  are  the  gainers. 

If  the  conditions  had  been  right,  and  man  had 
been  hospitable  to  its  advent,  the  witchcraft  of  two 
or  three  centuries  ago,  abounding  so  much  in  Europe 
and  in  this  country,  might  have  staid  and  been  mod- 
ern Spiritualism  long  ago,  instead  of  waiting  for  our 
day.  But  the  reception  of  it  was  such  that  the  influ- 
ences paused,  and  the  light  (or  darkness,  if  you 
choose  to  call  it  so)  was  withdrawn.  I  am  no  par- 
ticular lover  of  the  Indian  in  the  form,  or  in  the  raw 
material,  so  to  speak,  but  I  am  ashamed  of  my  race 
for  treating  it  as  it  has,  and  I  find  a  growing  admira- 
tion for  that  fast-departing  race,  especially  in  its 
spiritual  life,  for  the  loving  and  forgiving  disposition 
it  has  manifested  in  its  invisible  dealings  with  us. 

I  am  not  attempting  any  elaboration  of  this  Indian 
feature  of  our  z'sm,  but  am  only  too  glad  to  recognize 
its  importance  in  this  matter  in  general,  and  their 
individual  importance  as  guides,  body-guards,  or  con- 


INDIAN-SPIRIT   INFLUENCES.  199 

trols  of  the  mediums  that  figure  so  largely  in  this 
modern  movement. 

I  was  once  asked  by  a  well-known  medium  —  a 
doctress  —  to  write  her  a  poem  for  her  to  read  at  her 
anniversary,  soon  to  take  place.  She  said  Saucy 
Jack,  one  of  her  controls,  wanted  me  to.  I  make  no 
pretensions  in  the  poetical  direction,  but  wishing  to 
do  both  her  and  the  invisible  Indian  a  favor,  I  said  I 
would  try  to  do  so.  "Oh,  you  will  do  it,"  says  she  ; 
"Saucy  Jack  says  so."  I  soon  after  tried  to  write 
something,  and  succeeded  in  slowly  working  out 
some  fifty  lines.  It  was  rather  hard  work,  but  I 
thought  it  would  answer. 

I  met  the  lady  accidentally  a  few  days  after,  and 
asked  her  when  she  wanted  the  poetry,  and  to  let 
me  know  in  season,  so  that  I  could  find  time  to  write 
it,  and  have  it  ready  for  her.  She  spoke  right  up, 
and  said :  "  Chief,  what  do  you  say  that  for,  when 
you  have  already  written  it,  and  you  have  got  it  now 
in  your  pocket  ?  "  Well,  such  was  the  fact ;  it  was, 
certainly,  a  pretty  good  guess.  I  think  myself,  the 
fact  of  her  saying  that  the  Indian  control  said  I  would 
write  it,  had  some  effect  in  stimulating  me,  as  I 
always  want  the  influences  to  be  right  when  possible. 
I  called  it 

THE   INDIAN   PEACE-WHOOP. 

Wand'ring  in  dreams,  in  mazy  rev'rie  lost, 

A  feeling  strange  came  o'er  me.     Tempest  tossed, 

Then  calm,  and  then  —  a  light  upon  me  broke. 

I  heard  a  voice !     And  thus  the  spirit  spoke  : 

"Knowledge  is  power!"  we  hear  the  white  man  say; 

And,  lo  !  he  proves  it.     We  the  tribute  pay 


200  SHADOWS. 

Of  home,  of  life,  of  race.     Slowly  we  yield, 

And  leave  the  white  man  master  of  the  field. 

No  more  the  wigwam,  squaw,  or  brave  is  seen, 

Though  streams  still  run,  and  hills  aud  vales  are  green. 

O'er  this  broad  land  the  white  race  rules  supreme ; 

It  is  his  hour.     But  Red  Man  is  our  theme. 

Has  pale  chief  all  the  knowledge,  all  the  power? 

All  nature's  secrets,  animal  and  flower? 

We  are  big  med'cinc  braves ;  we  have  our  sense, 

Aud  still  are  with  you,  although  driven  hence. 

Our  hunting-ground,  invisible  to  you,  is  near; 

Some  hear  our  whispers,  indistinct,  or  clear. 

Having  the  power,  through  simple  modes  of  life, 

We  reach  you,  white  man,  forgiving  ancient  strife; 

Would  do  you  good,  would  cure  the  aches  and  pain 

That  flesh  is  heir  to, —  thus  good  health  obtain. 

The  red  man  in  the  form,  with  iustinct  blind, 

Oft  sensed  a  truth  that  culture  failed  to  find. 

As  close  to  earth  the  Indian  puts  his  ear 

To  sense  the  footfalls  too  far  off  to  hear, 

Or  tread  of  game,  or  tiud  perhaps  the  trail, 

Gaining  knowledge  where  higher  outlooks  fail, 

Deep  lessons  iuexpressible  iu  speech, 

And  thus  a  royal  road  to  knowledge  reach. 

"Knowledge  is  power,"  in  whispers  soft  and  low 

Say  we,  and  prove  it,  as  our  records  show. 

We  reached  humanity  in  your  grandsire's  day, 

Aided  by  spirits  bright;  they  showed  the  way; 

We  had  the  strength.     Then  mortals  were  possessed, 

As  witches  burned,  and  other  ways  distressed. 

Liking  our  sensitives,  we  soon  retired, 

And  waited  till  our  service  was  desired. 

Thus  came  a  solstice  to  this  "  Dawniug  Light." 

Again  we  come,  conditions  being  right, 

To  manifest  to  you  this  glorious  truth  : 

That  death  is  life,  and  age  immortal  youth. 

We,  red-skinned  souls,  to  nature  fondly  drawn, 

Are  doing  work  as  spirits  of  the  morn; 

And  mediums  all  are  strengthened  by  our  aid, 


INDIAN-SPIRIT  INFLUENCES.  201 

And  better  manifestations  now  are  made. 

Blest  be  the  form,  when  aided  by  our  race, 

That  made  it  possible  in  this  age  to  trace 

Intelligent  connection  in  spirit  life 

With  lover,  brother,  sister,  friend,  or  wife, 

Whom  you  thought  dead,  and  thus  have  found 

That  no  man  ever  moldered  under  ground. 

Then  o'er  the  wide  earth  let  the  "Peace- Whoop  "  sound, 

The  spirits  have  triumphed !  the  lost  are  found ! 

Feeling  as  I  do,  and  have  said,  that  the  Indian 
element  is  an  important  factor  in  the  Genesis  as  well 
as  the  Exodus  or  going  forth  of  modern  Spiritualism, 
the  fact  has  associated  them  in  my  mind  with 
the  advent  of  what  has  been  poetically  and  appro- 
priately called  the  "  Dawning  Light."  As  the  anni- 
versaries of  this  event  come  round  every  thirty-first 
day  of  March,  the  Indian  seems  to  be  a  figure  in  the 
picture,  though  not  always  brought  into  the  fore- 
ground. I  have  therefore  thought  it  might  not  be 
out  of  good  taste,  while  running  thus  a  little  into 
poetry,  to  add  one  at  the  close  of  this  Indian  chap- 
ter that  was  written  for  one  of  these  anniversaries. 
I  will  print  it  as  I  find  it  in  the  report  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  March  31,  1882,  as  follows :  — 

The  chairman  then  introduced  to  the  people,  John 
Wetherbee,  of  Boston,  who  spoke  as  follows :  — 

FRIENDS, —  Expecting  to  be  asked  to  say  a  few 
words  on  this  occasion,  I  have  come  prepared  with  a 
short  poem.  I  am  no  improviser,  and  I  am  no  poet; 
but  I  thought  I  would  follow  my  impression,  and  take 
the  consequences. 

I  have  put  together  a  few  fragmentary  thoughts 


202  SHADOWS. 

suggested  by  the  "  Dawning  Light "  of  1848.  I  might 
call  them  "  Night  Thoughts,"  for  their  genesis  was  in 
the  night.  "  Star  Thoughts,"  perhaps,  would  be 
better,  for  when  one  thinks  of  the  auroral  hour  of  our 
Light,  his  thoughts  are  apt  to  have  a  heavenly  or 
celestial  twist  in  them,  and  we  wander  among  the 
constellations, —  at  least  I  do.  This  is  my  preface, 
as  well  as  my  apology  for  what  follows :  — 

The  "Dawning  Light"  of  eighteen  forty-eight 

The  saints  of  earth  have  met  to  celebrate; 

Or  some  of  them  to  thus  commemorate 

This  great  prevision  of  our  future  state, — 

That  man  was  not  beneath  the  sod  to  wait, 

In  a  dead  or  decomposed  state, 

But  pass  at  once  through  the  celestial  gate, 

Into  the  "  Beyond,"  or  "  Evergreen  Shore," 

The  "  Sweet  By-and-Bye,"  to  die  no  more, 

Finding  our  departed  friends  awaiting, 

With  outstretched  arms,  congratulating 

Us  on  our  arrival  from  this  world  of  sorrow 

Into  the  "  Summer-Land"  of  death's  tomorrow. 

This,  then,  was  the  telephonic  story 

That  made  the  "  Dawning  Light"  a  day  of  glory. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  this  thought, 

So  hopeful,  and  with  such  a  future  fraught, 

A  feeling  strange  came  o'er  me,  on  my  pen ; 

My  thoughts  were  more  on  angels  than  on  men. 

Well,  let  it  be  so,  't  is  their  sacred  hour ; 

They  did  the  work,  they  had  the  mystic  power. 

While  being  thus  celestially  inclined, 

My  eyes  were  skyward  turned,  as  well  as  mind ; 

This  globe  of  earth  seemed  like  a  palace-car; 

More  than  that, —  I  was  riding  on  a  star. 

Is  the  earth  a  palace-car  ? 
Are  we  riding  on  a  star  ? 


INDIAN-SPIRIT   INFLUENCES.  20* 

Ask  the  man  on  Venus  bright  : 
Watchman,  tell  us  of  the  night! 
Who  with  wonder  gazes  high, 
Sees  our  planet  iu  his  sky, 
Bright  as  Venus  at  its  best ; 
We  shall  need  no  other  test; 
We  arc  riding  fast  and  far, 
We  are  trav'ling  on  a  star. 

Thou  incandescent  orb !  Most  glorious  sun ! 

Holding  this  star,  our  world,  fast  in  its  course, 

As  one  will  sometimes  swing  with  a  string 

A  ball  round  and  round,  centripetally  tied ; 

The  tension,  resisting  gravitation, 

Is  the  force  centrifugal.     Thus  balanced 

Has  this  old  star  rolled  on  through  space ;  no  pause 

Nor  change  since  the  stars  sang  their  morning  song. 

Thus  earth's  relation  to  the  god  of  day. 

This  line,  holding  the  earth  steady  in  place, 

Though  invisible,  immaterial  force, 

Is  firm  and  enduring,  iu  length  counting 

Almost  a  hundred  million  miles,  the  sweep 

Circumferential  six  hundred  million. 

Thy  daily  task,  old  star,  then  counts  in  miles 

A  million,  yes,  plus  half  a  million  more, 

Before  thy  daily  work  is  done;  then  day 

By  day  th«  same  to  make  the  year  complete; 

And  we  are  riding  on  this  star  sublime. 

Thou  bright,  planetary  neighbor!  tethered 
Like  a  dory  to  our  ship, — silver-faced  moon, — 
Wert  thou  full  six  times  further  off  than  now, 
Our  star  would  span  the  distance  in  a  day. 
Where  now  beheld  coquetting  with  the  clouds, 
In  four  short  hours  our  speed  would  reach  tlie  spot. 
Thirty  miles  an  hour  would  steam-car  travel 
Continuously  a  year  to  do  this  four  hours'  work. 
Thus  hast  thou  sped,  old  earth,  since  time  begau. 
Thy  genesis  with  its  misty  morning 


204  SHADOWS. 

No  man  can  date,  but  thy  swift  exodus 
He  can  compute,  and  in  more  than  fancy 
Knows  that  he  is  traveling  on  a  star. 

Is  the  earth  a  palace  car? 
Are  we  riding  on  a  star? 
Ask  the  man  on  Venus  bright : 
Watchman,  tell  us  of  the  night? 
Who  with  wonder  gazes  high, 
Sees  our  planet  in  his  sky, 
Bright  as  Venus  at  its  best ; 
We  shall  need  no  other  test ; 
We  are  riding  fast  and  far, 
We  are  traveling  on  a  star. 

This  star,  our  earth,  so  quickly  flying, 
Carrying  its  more  than  billion  passengers, 
Or  precious  freight  of  human  beings,  jumps 
Never  its  track.     No  misplaced  switch  ever 
Leads  our  star  parabolically  astray, 
Nor  telescoped  by  swifter-speeding  orbs, — 
Never  collision  with  inward-bound  stars. 
So  steady  and  even  has  been  the  speed, 
Though  moving  in  its  track  two  thousand  miles 
While  quickest  locomotive  travels  one, 
That  mankind  at  ease  seems  standing  still, 
Yet  all  the  time  is  riding  on  a  star. 

Thus  would  we  realize  in  solemn  words 
That  we  are  moving  with  electric  speed, 
Yet  slow  compared  with  light,  which  moves 
Ten  thousand  times  as  fast ;  and  thought  beats  light, 
And  spirits  travel  on  the  wings  of  thought. 
While  our  star,  the  earth,  through  space  is  moving 
Thus  its  thousand  miles  and  more  a  minute, 
Other  bodies  are  traveling  also,  each  with 
Its  own  right  of  way  on  their  several  tracks. 
There  are  also  wandering,  harmless  systems, 
Streams  of  granulated,  cosmic  matter, 
In  revolutions  sweeping  round  the  sun. 


INDIAN-SPIRIT   INFLUENCES.  205 

At  times  old  earth,  the  star  on  which  we  ride, 
Goes  through  these  cosmic  systems  with  a  rush. 
The  atmospheric  clothing  of  our  globe 
Protects  us,  but  the  friction  from  its  speed 
Makes  incandescent  the  granulations, 
And  they  fall  in  harmless  dust,  and  blazing 
Meteors  irradiate  the  midnight  sky, 
"While  we  are  riding  on  this  star  sublime. 

An  impression  came  to  the  star-eyed  sage 
As  he  reached  this  line  on  his  written  page, 
Where  many  an  hour  he  had  wasted  ink 
To  strike  an  idea  that  would  make  men  think, 
And  during  the  time  had  traveled  so  far 
Without  being  joggled,  though  riding  a  star, 
That  there  might  be  zones  in  the  realms  of  space 
That  vitalized  thought  in  the  human  race, 
The  contact  afflicting  humanity's  dream 
Something  like  sailing  through  the  old  Gulf  Stream, 
Where  water  is  warm  to  one's  physical  sense ; 
But  these  zones  warm  soul  with  their  influence. 
Thus  ages  of  light,  or  revivals  of  thought, 
Have  dawned  on  the  world  as  history  has  taught; 
For  mankind's  movements  seem  in  waves  to  flow, 
Some  mountains  high,  and  some  are  leveled  low, 
More  like  influence  from  an  outside  source, 
That  wakes  stagnation  into  active  force, 
Perihelions,  perhaps,  in  a  spiritual  sense, 
Where  influence  divine  is  more  intense. 

Thus  while  riding  on  a  star, 
Traveling  very  fast  and  far, 
Old  earth  entered  somewhat  so, 
Four  and  thirty  years  ago, 
The  zone  of  the  "  Dawning  Light," 
That  made  the  conditions  right, 
And  enabled  angels  bright 
To  make  their  presence  felt; 
Messages  from  raps  were  spelt, 


206  SHADOWS. 

Which,  interpreted  and  read, 
Broke  the  silence  of  the  dead, 
Thinned  the  curtain  of  our  fate, 
Forecasted  our  future  state. 
Man  need  not  have  traveled  far 
To  have  found  the  "gates  ajar," 
For  the  spirit  world  was  near, 
Our  departed  still  were  here. 
But  the  transit  through  this  " zone" 
Made  the  earth  a  telephone, — 
Made  sensitive  the  inward  ear, 
And  silent  voices  vocal,  clear ; 
Peopling  the  circumambient  air 
With  living  beauty  everywhere. 

Thus  we  celebrate  the  date, 

March  thirty-first,  'forty-eight, 

As  the  genesis  of  our  Thought, 

That  has  golden  luster  brought 

And  marked  the  age  with  glory. 

Is  it  out  of  place  to  say 

(While  moving  through  the  Milky  Way, 

Or  Galaxy  of  stellar  light, 

That  spans  so  visibly  at  night 

The  great  concave  overhead) 

Again  the  words  already  said, — 

Is  not  earth  a  palace  car? 

See  us  riding  on  a  star. 

Ask  the  man  on  Venus  bright : 

Watchman,  tell  us  of  the  night? 

Who  with  wonder  gazes  high, 

Sees  our  planet  in  his  sky, 

Sees  it  traveling  fast  and  far, 

While  we  are  riding  on  the  star. 


XX. 

A   WAYSIDE   SKETCH. 

An  entertaining  sketch  that  will  fill  up  some  deficiencies 
in  the  course  of  these  "  Shadows." 

Sometimes  I  think  the  dear  public  of  skeptical 
people  are  often  more  deceived,  their  credulity  taxed, 
than  are  the  body  politic  of  spiritualistic  believers. 

The  credulity  is  on  the  side  of  the  opposition  rather 
than  with  us.  I  am  sure  I  have  been  astute,  eye- 
opened,  and  expert  in  the  'investigation  of  this  subject. 
I  have  seen,  of  course,  attempts  to  cheat  by  at  least 
supplementing  their  powers  by  more  or  less  imposi- 
tion; not  always  meaning  to  do  anything  very  wrong, 
but,  perhaps,  to  give  more  for  the  fee  received  than 
the  spirits  can  do  through  them. 

It  has  always  been  my  wish,  and  so  has  it  been  the 
wish  of  Spiritualists  generally,  that  mediums  would 
have  no  manifestations  rather  than  to  have  fictions, — 
give  it  up  as  a  failure,  want  of  proper  conditions,  or 
whatever  the  cause  may  be ;  but  never  to  allow  one's 
mediumistic  elasticity  to  stretch  into  anything  of 
their  own  doing ;  in  the  long  run,  people  who  do  gen- 
erally come  to  grief. 

207 


208  SHADOWS. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  who  are  in  the  show 
department  of  this  business,  often  having  more  or  less 
mediumistic  power,  who  find  it  more  profitable  to 
cater  for  the  opposition  rather  than  the  spiritualistic 
public.  It  is  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents  with  them. 
I  could  name  a  man  who  is  a  good  medium  for  phys- 
ical manifestations,  but  likes  the  popularity  and  the 
remuneration  that  he  gets  from  the  skeptical  world 
better  than  poverty  with  truth.  I  have  proved  his 
mediumship  when  incog.,  under  crucial  test  condi- 
tions, and  I  have  said  to  him,  after  making  myself 
known  :  "  Why  do  you  go  about  exposing  it,  or  mix- 
ing fiction  extravagantly  with  fact,  and  call  them 
spiritual  manifestations?"  He  said  in  reply :  "It  is 
wholly  a  matter  of  dollars.  If  I  should  go  into  a 
village  and  do  honest  work  as  a  spiritual  medium,  I 
could  not  get  enough  to  pay  my  expenses  ;  but  if  I 
plan  for  the  opposition,  the  religious  class,  the  Chris- 
tian Association,  or  the  fashionable,  to  expose  or 
bring  discredit  on  it,  I  can  get  a  full  hall,  and  go  awa}' 
with  money  in  my  pocket." 

I  have  been  many  times  to  see  these  paying  exhi- 
bitions, and  have  seen  many  of  the  religious,  literary, 
and  official  lights  of  the  community  sold,  as  the  say- 
ing is,  more  than  ever  I  saw  a  spiritual  gathering 
sold,  and  I  have  been  both  amused  and  grieved  to 
see  a  large  audience  of  respectable  and  intelligent 
people  humbugged  into  supposing  they  were  witness- 
ing the  spiritual  manifestations  that  have  converted 
people  to  the  cause.  I  have  felt  sorry,  being  a  Spirit- 
ualist, to  find  that  so  many  people  were  ready  to  think 


A  WAYSIDE  SKETCH.  209 

that  that  is  the  pabulum  or  sensuous  phenomena  that 
has  attracted  and  retained  me  as  one  of  the  believers. 

I  was  once  traveling  in  the  far,  far  West,  and  on 
the  western  slope  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  hap- 
pened to  be  stopping  in  a  mining  town,  where  one  of 
these  shows  of  big  spiritual  advertisements  had  been 
going  on;  an  interesting  colloquy  or  circumstance 
occurred,  which  was  quite  amusing.  1  wrote  an 
account  of  it  over  the  signature  of  "  Shadows,"  and 
that  account  I  will  add  to  what  I  have  already  said, 
as  a  finish  to  this  chapter.  If  some  part  of  it  has 
been  already  recorded  in  this  book,  in  the  form  now 
presented,  it  will  hardly  be  a  repetition.  Pebbles, 
you  know,  become  jewels  by  an  appropriate  setting ; 
but  the  "  repetition,"  or  fact  mentioned,  is  a  jewel, 
setting  or  no  setting;  so,  if  it  gets  a  new  hearing,  the 
reader  will  be  all  the  better  for  it.  The  article  is  as 
follows :  — 

A  traveler,  very  early  in  the  morning,  stopped  at 
the  tavern  in  Nevada  City.  He  had  come  during 
the  night  in  the  branch  railroad  from  Colfax,  and  reg- 
istered his  name.  It  was  an  hour  or  two  before  the 
guests  were  stirring.  Those  who  looked  at  the  reg- 
ister afterwards,  as  people  are  apt  to,  particularly  in 
a  suburban  town,  read  the  name  of  "  Shadows,"  Col- 
fax.  As  soon  as  breakfast  was  ready,  this  new  comer, 
"  Shadows,"  of  Colfax,  was  more  than  ready,  after  an 
all-night  ride,  and  immediately  began  sipping  his  hot 
coffee;  and,  before  the  guests  had  begun  to  gather 
much  around  the  table,  he  had  finished  his  meal,  and 
was  again  comfortably  sitting  by  the  stove. 


210  SHADOWS. 

This  stove  was  in  the  center  of  what  might  be 
called  the  office,  as  the  bar  was  in  the  side  room  on 
the  left,  and  the  dining  room  was  on  the  right,  some 
conveniences  in  the  rear,  and  this  office  seemed  to  be 
the  general  lounging  room.  This  room  was  quite 
large.  On  one  side  was  the  clerk's  counter  and  desk, 
and  large  piles  of  trunks  on  the  other  side;  but  they 
did  not  crowd  it  any.  It  was  roomy,  dirty,  and  com- 
fortable. This  stranger,  seated  by  the  stove,  seemed 
to  be  in  a  brown  study,  taking  no  notice  of  anything 
or  anybody.  Not  so  the  guests,  as  they  came  one 
after  another  out  of  the  dining  room,  some  to  stop, 
others  in  passing  gave  a  look  at  the  stranger,  and 
wondered  who  he  was ;  the  register  gave  his  name. 
They  who  looked  read  "  Shadows," —  the  place  where 
he  hailed  from,  "Colfax"  ;  but  that  was  no  definition. 

Many,  as  usual  on  a  cool  morning,  took  seats  around 
this  stove.  Of  the  eight  or  ten  who  occupied  that 
position,  some  were  young,  some  middle  aged,  some 
were  old, —  not  very  old  nor  very  young.  In  a  pro- 
vincial place  or  mining  town,  as  this  was,  a  man  of 
GO  looks  easily  70,  because  the  metropolitan  style 
was  lacking,  and  slouches  more  in  order  than  stiff 
hats ;  and  white  shirts,  though  possib'y  in  a  majority, 
were  not  unanimous.  It  was  a  place  where  dress  did 
not  make  the  man,  nor  want  of  it  the  fellow.  Old 
and  young  among  the  sitters  looked  more  or  less  at 
the  stranger,  and  all  showed  inquiring  minds  or  faces, 
as  if  they  wanted  to  ask  him  who  he  was,  and  what 
he  was  there  for,  and  seemingly  knowing  no  one. 
The  stranger,  however,  gave  no  signs  of  explaining 


A   WAYSIDE   SKETCH.  211 

himself, —  seemed  perfectly  at  ease,  and  busy  with 
his  own  thoughts. 

Soon,  however,  the  companions  of  the  stove  began 
to  be  sociable,  still  with  an  eye  now  and  then  on  the 
stranger,  to  see,  perhaps,  if  he  thawed  out  any.  They 
soon  came  to  the  conclusion  that  their  talking  or 
looking  was  quite  indifferent  to  him.  In  the  course 
of  the  general  talk  it  seemed  that  some  persons  had 
created  quite  a  sensation  the  Sunday  evening  before, 
filling  the  largest  hall  in  the  town  to  witness  their 
wonderfully  advertised  spiritual  manifestations.  The 
parties  were  Eva  Fay  and  a  Mr.  Bidden,  I  think. 
No  Spiritualist  who  reads  the  newspapers  would  take 
any  stock  in  them. 

In  listening  to  this  general  talk,  and  their  several 
comments,  pro  and  con,  one  could  have  got  a  tolera- 
bly fair  account  of  what  occurred  at  that  entertain- 
ment, and,  as  it  will  be  seen,  this  stranger  did;  but 
he  gave  no  signs  of  interest ;  and  whether  he  was  lis- 
tening or  riot,  the  strangers  did  not  know.  He  cer- 
tainly appeared  to  be  deep  in  thought,  living  in  u 
different  world  from  them. 

One  of  the  younger  members  of  the  group,  and 
one  who  talked  more  than  his  share,  and  might  be 
described  as  a  "bar-room  boss,"  summed  it  all  up  by 
saying  "it  was  a  big  humbug;"  and  I  guess  he  was 
right,  only  he  intended  his  "big  humbug"  to  cover 
I  ho  whole  subject  from  beginning  to  end,  there  and 
elsewhere.  An  old  man  (who  used  a  crutch,  having 
fallen  from  a  rock),  taking  his  pipe  out  of  his  mouth, 
said:  "I  do  not  think  so;  some  of  it  may  have 


212  SHADOWS. 

been,  but  some  of  the  things  were  really  honestly 
done."  "  I  do  n't  think  Prof.  Crosby  took  any  stock 
in  them,  and  he  is  a  Spiritualist,"  said  another.  At 
the  name  of  Crosby,  the  stranger  looked  at  the  party, 
but,  in  an  instant,  he  was  indifferent  again.  Some 
had  noticed  the  look,  and  brought  Prof.  Crosby's 
name  more  to  the  front  in  this  connection,  but  it  had 
lost  its  charm,  and  the  conversation  subsided  again 
into  the  subject  of  spiritual  manifestations  generally. 
The  young  man,  who  we  said  seemed  to  sum  it 
all  up  as  a  big  humbug,  said  then,  in  a  very  positive 
way,  that  "Spirits  have  nothing  to  do  with  this 
folderol.  All  the  things  we  read  of  as  being  done  all 
over  the  country,  and  called  spiritual  manifestations, 
are  all  frauds."  "Oh,  that  cannot  be,"  said  another. 
But  the  "boss,"  who  seemed  to  know  it  all,  and  had 
seen  it  all — nothing  more  for  him  to  learn  —  said: 
"  I  admit  some  of  it  to  be  true  ;  but  no  spirits ;  it  is 
electricity  and  mesmerism  and  mind-reading.  All 
the  rope-tying,  rings  put  onto  connected  arms,  slate- 
writing,  tipping  of  tables,  bell-ringing,  are  all  decep- 
tion, sleight-of-hand,  or  adroitness.  Do  you  not  see, 
said  he,  "how  large  their  wrists  are,  and  hands 
small?"  This  young  man  was  very  positive;  spoke 
as  if  used  to  carrying  his  point  in  that  crowd,  as  if 
those  listeners  were  in  the  habit  of  being  convinced 
by  his  saying  so.  All  the  argument  need  not  be 
expressed  in  this  wayside  account.  The  reader  will 
get  about  the  situation  from  what  has  been  related, 
this  young  "  boss  "  of  words  being  particularly  happy 


A   WAYSIDE   SKETCH.  213 

in  clinching  his  argument  with  electricity,  mesmer- 
ism, and  mind-reading. 

The  stranger  turned  his  eye  on  this  positive  and 
fluent  talker,  and  said  in  a  bright,  cheerful,  but  very 
deliberate  manner :  "  My  friend,  will  you  define  elec- 
tricity ?  What  is  it  ?  "  The  suddenness  of  the  ques- 
tion embarrassed  the  young  man  a  little,  and  he 
made,  at  first,  no  reply.  All  the  listeners  were  as 
much  interested  in  the  stranger's  breaking  silence  as 
in  the  question.  The  young  speaker  seemed  to  be 
aware  that  it  was  very  easy  to  say  it  was  electricity, 
but  not  so  easy  to  tell  what  electricity  was.  The  party 
all  looked  at  the  stranger,  who,  at  last,  had  opened 
his  mouth,  and,  after  the  pause  mentioned,  said  to 
the  young  man :  u  You  need  not  try  to  answer  the 
question.  The  best  that  can  be  done  by  anyone  is 
to  say  it  is  a  mode  of  motion.  Farraday  once  said,  in 
reply  to  a  question  put  to  him  :  '  I  suppose  I  know  as 
much  about  electricity  as  anyone,  and  I  am  unable 
to  say  what  it  is,  or  define  it.'  If  Farraday  was  dumb, 
it  is  no  discredit  to  you  to  be  dumb  on  the  subject 
also.  The  spiritual  manifestations  may  be  electricity, 
as  you  say ;  but,  to  say  so,  is  no  explanation." 

The  young  man,  not  wishing  to  lose  any  of  his 
prestige  in  his  own  field,  said  to  the  stranger  he  had 
more  in  his  mind  mesmerism  than  electricity.  The 
stranger  at  once  said :  '"Well,  my  friend,  what  is 
mesmerism  ? "  He  replied  :  "The  influence  one  mind 
has  upon  or  over  another,  sometimes  controlling  it." 
"  That  is  correct,"  said  the  stranger ;  "  and  added : 
"  Is  it  the  mind  or  the  body  that  mesmerizes  or  con- 


214  SHADOWS. 

trols  the  subject?"  The  young  man  said,  rather 
hesitatingly  :  "  The  mind."  "  Of  course,"  said  the 
stranger,  "  for  a  body  without  a  mind,  or  a  corpse, 
would  have  no  mesmeric  power.  I  think,"  con- 
tinued the  stranger,  "that  Spiritualism  is  mesmer- 
ism." The  young  man  began  to  feel  as  though  he 
had  an  ally. 

The  stranger  then  said :  "  As  the  body  cannot,  of 
itself,  mesmerize  without  a  mind,  is  it  not  probable 
that  mind  can  without  a  body  ?  "  "I  never  saw  one, 
or  ever  heard  of  one,"  said  the  young  man ;  and 
the  sitters  around  the  stove  were  interested  and 
amused.  "Well,"  said  the  stranger,  "there  are  a 
great  many  things  that  exist  that  we  cannot  see,  or 
intelligently  perceive.  We  cannot  see  electricity  or 
mesmerism.  We  know  them  only  by  their  effects. 
We  do  not  see  minds  or  spirits ;  we  know  them  by 
their  effects.  You  have  taken,  my  young  friend, 
an  electric  shock,  or  seen  one  taken,  and  so  you 
know  electricity  exists ;  some  day,  if  you  are  lucky, 
you  will  have  a  spiritual  shock ;  then  you  will  have 
evidence  of  the  other." 

The  young  man  said,  in  reply  to  the  stranger: 
"A  man  may  exist,  after  his  death,  with  thinking 
powers,  but  I  do  not  believe  it.  I  am  willing,"  said 
he,  "  to  be  convinced ;  I  would  like  a  spiritual  shock 
here  and  now."  "Well,"  said  the  stranger,  "if  I 
were  a  '  machine,'  and  conditions  were  right,  I  would 
give  you  one ;  but,  as  I  am  not,  I  will  tell  you  of  one 
I  had  myself.  I  have  had  a  great  many.  This  that  I 
now  refer  to  is  so  perfectly  unmistakable  that,  if  you 


A  WAYSIDE   SKETCH.  215 

believe  me,  you  will  have  to  be  convince*!.  I  do  not 
expect,  however,  you  will  be  convinced ;  the  subject 
is  a  matter  of  experience  rather  than  of  argument." 
The  stove-surroundings  seemed  desirous  for  an  ac- 
count of  the  stranger's  first  shock,  so  he  gave  it  sub- 
stantially as  follows :  — 

"A  niece  of  mine,  a  young  lady  of  sixteen,  said  to 
me  during  a  visit  at  my  house :  'Uncle,  are  you  still 
a  Spiritualist?'  I  replied:  Yes.  She  then  related 
something  rather  strange  that  had  occurred  in  her 
presence.  I  said :  Molly,  you  must  be  a  medium ; 
come  and  sit  with  me  at  this  table.  She  did  so,  and 
we  tried  for  raps,  or  tips,  but  did  not  succeed.  I 
then  put  a  pencil  in  her  hand  to  hold,  and,  seeing  a 
motion,  I  put  a  sheet  of  paper  under  it,  and  her  hand 
made  up  and  down  motions,  dotting  the  paper,  but 
no  writing.  The  movement  was  strange  to  her,  as  it 
was  wholly  involuntary.  I  then  put  the  end  of  my 
index-finger  on  the  wrist  of  the  hand  that  held  the 
pencil, —  nothing  more, —  and  her  hand  began  to 
write  line  after  line,  she  saying :  '  How  queer,  uncle  ; 
I  do  n't  do  that ;  why,  see,  it  goes  of  itself,  and  my 
hand  wont  stop.'  In  this  way  she  filled  the  page, 
which  I  took,  and  she  went  right  on  writing  the  next 
while  I  was  reading  the  first,  and  it  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  wise,  intelligent  letter. 

"While  writing  in  this  way,  she  was  all  the  time 
talking  excitedly  to  me,  often  saying:  'Only  see  it, 
uncle,  and  I  am  not  doing  it '  (and  the  young  man 
smiled,  as  if  he  was  thinking  to  himself:  *  How  she 
was  fooling  the  old  man ').  She  ended  the  eoinmu 


216  SHADOWS. 

nication  by  signing  the  name  of  an  old  aunt  of  mine 
who  had  died  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  when  my  sister, 
the  mother  of  this  young  lady,  was  a  child,  and  this 
niece  had  never  heard  of  such  a  person.  So  far, 
knowing  that  this  young  lady  was  honest,  it  was 
tolerable  proof  of  the  action  of  a  spirit." 

The  young  man  said :  "  That  is  the  way  with  all 
you  folks.  That  would  not  suit  me ;  that  may  have 
been  all  pretence.  I  do  not  say  it  was,  Mr.  Shadows, 
but  it  was  possible;  and,  certainly,  if  there  is  any 
way  of  accounting  for  a  thing  naturally,  no  one 
will  suggest  the  supernatural."  "  But,  listen  to  me," 
said  the  stranger ;  "  what  do  you  think  this  letter 
was  ?  It  was  from  an  invisible  and  watchful  intelli- 
gence, who  wrote  in  this  way:  'You'  (this  young 
lady)  'are  doing  yourself  and  the  young  man  an 
injury ;  the  flirtation  that  you  are  now  carrying  on 
with  that  young  college  student,  Mr.  Chick,  is 
highly  improper,  and  will  do  an  injury  to  both  of 
you ;  it  will  amount  to  nothing.  Both  of  you  are 
too  young,  and  you  will  both  in  time  find  your  proper 
mates.  Your  mother  would  not  like  it,  if  she  knew 
it;  and  now  as  I'  (this  invisible  relative)  'am  watch- 
ing over  you,  I  feel  it  my  duty,  as  I  love  you,  Molly, 
to  have  trifling  ended.  You  must  end  it,  or  go  to 
your  mother  and  confide  in  her,  who  now  knows 
nothing  of  it.  I  take  this  way  of  reaching  you,  and 
it  shows  you  have  friends  watching  you,  whether 
you  wake  or  whether  you  sleep.' ' 

The  stranger  said  he  told  this  from  memory,  and 
it  was  the  substance  of  a  long  letter  written  auto- 


A   WAYSIDE   SKETCH.  217 

matically,  in  the  way  described,  by  this  young  lady. 
The  nature  of  it  is  proof  of  its  abnormal  character. 
I  knew  what  she  was  writing  before  she  did,  other- 
wise she  never  would  have  allowed  me  to  see  it. 
The  young  lady  burst  into  tears  from  mortification 
to  see  her  inmost  thoughts  thus  exposed.  I  said : 
"Who  is  this  Mr.  Chick?  Is  there  any  such  per- 
son? She  said:  'He  is  a  nice  young  man,  who  is  in 
college  in  our  neighborhood,  and  I  love  him  very 
much.'  Suffice  it  to  say,"  said  the  stranger,  "the 
young  lady  learned  a  wise  lesson  that  she  has  never 
forgotten.  There  are  eyes  that  see  us  and  watch  us, 
and  the  knowledge  of  that  fact,  I  may  as  well  add, 
is  what  the  world  needs  more  than  it  needs  anything 
else/' 

The  young  man  had  to  own  up  that  this  was  a  re- 
markable case,  as  the  stranger  had  stated  it.  "  But  I 
have  had,"  said  he,  "  no  such  experience  myself,  and 
I  cannot  believe  it.  I  might  have  been  saved  from 
much  trouble  if  anybody's  aunt  had  written  a  letter 
to  me.  You  are  a  stranger,"  said  the  young  man ; 
"you  tell  a  good  story.  I  do  n't  want  to  doubt  you, 
sir,  but  it  smells  to  me  fishy.  Perhaps  I  would  think 
otherwise  if  I  knew  you  ;  but  I  would  have  to  have 
the  experience  myself.  This  may  be  a  'spiritual 
shock'  to  you,  but  it  has  not  shocked  me  a  bit;  and, 
if  I  had  been  present,  I  feel  pretty  sure  it  would  not 
have  struck  me." 

At  this  moment  in  walked  Prof.  Crosby  from  the 
dining-room.  The  stranger's  back  was  towards  him. 
He  had  heard  a  few  of  the  last  words  of  the  confab, 


218  SHADOWS. 

and  the  stranger  turning  to  see  who  had  entered,  the 
professor  rushed  towards  him,  saying  :  "  Good  God, 
John,  where  did  you  come  from  ? "  and  he  intro- 
duced the  stranger  to  the  persons  around  him  as  his 
friend  "  Shadows,''  of  Boston. 

It  only  remains  for  me  to  say  that  I  wanted  to 
surprise  my  friend,  and,  finding  myself  within  a  few 
hours'  ride  from  him,  thought  I  would  make  him  a 
visit.  I  have  no  doubt,  also,  I  instructed  as  well  as 
entertained  the  members  of  the  tavern  office  in  that 
colloquy,  and  I  think  it  was  a  fortunate  circumstance 
that  the  "  stranger "  happened  to  be  present.  I 
think  that  Miss  Fay  is  a  medium,  but  I  do  not 
think  her  shows  are  any  credit  to  Spiritualism.  But 
the  cause  was  not  hurt  any  by  the  light  that  the 
"stranger,"  now  known  as  "Shadows,"  cast  upon 
the  subject. 


XXT. 

MATTER   AND   SPIRIT. 

Of  intercourse  with  spirits.  —  Some  conditions  worth 
knowing.  —  Illustrations  —  Sealed  letters. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  many  able  writers,  including 
the  late  Robert  Dale  Owen  (who  had  wide  experi- 
ence in  dealing  with  the  spirits,  and  did  so  very 
advantageously),  that  spirits  do  not  see  material 
objects,  or  hear  material  sounds,  as  we  mortals  do. 
From  my  own  experiences,  I  agree  with  him  and 
them  that  it  requires  material  organs  to  see  material 
objects  and  hear  material  or  external  sounds.  In 
one  sense,  sounds  may  not  be  strictly  ^material ;  for 
instance,  the  human  voice,  —  that  is,  an  external 
expression  of  the  human  spirit,  but  it  is  material  in 
its  manifestation  from  its  impulse  to  its  expression. 
It  is  air  vibrations,  and  air  is  material.  It  requires 
the  auricular  organ  to  hear  a  sound ;  by  and  through 
that  organ  it  reaches  the  sensorium,  and  becomes  a 
matter  of  consciousness.  So,  also,  it  requires  the 
optical  organ  to  see  a  material  object,  and  through 
it  the  object  reaches  the  sensorium,  and  becomes  a 
matter  of  consciousness  or  perception. 

219 


220  SHADOWS. 

This  seems  very  simple  talk  on  very  common,  simple 
things.  Optical  and  auricular  organs  are  so  common, 
born  with  us,  and  are  in  practical  use  from  infancy  to 
age  with  no  effort  on  our  part.  The  operation  is  so 
simple  that,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  modus  oper- 
andi,  and  the  philosophy  of  the  phenomena  of  per- 
ception is  rarely  thought  of.  Yet,  simple  and  com- 
mon as  it  is,  no  one,  no  matter  the  extent  of  his 
knowledge,  however  much  of  a  scientist  or  student 
in  these  things  he  may  be,  is  able  to  explain  how  the 
object  which  is  material  becomes  a  matter  of  con- 
sciousness, which  is  spiritual. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  one  of  the  most  intuitional 
of  men,  who  seems  to  sense  a  truth  and  then  embody 
it  in  living  language  so  pleasant  to  remember  that  it 
makes  his  every  thought  a  treasure,  said :  "  It  is  so 
wonderful  to  our  neurologists  that  a  man  should  see 
without  eyes ;  but  it  does  not  occur  to  them  that  it 
is  just  as  wonderful  that  he  should  see  with  them." 
Simple  as  the  quoted  fact  seems,  it  is  both  wonderful 
and  inexplicable  that  with  eyes  we  should  be  able 
to  see  and  make  material  objects  manifest  to  our 
spirits. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  write  an  essay  on  percep- 
tion, which  I  seem  to  be  doing,  but  only  to  philoso- 
phize a  little  in  this  way  to  smooth  the  abruptness  of 
the  statement,  that  our  spirit  friends  do  not  see  us 
objectively  or  materially  in  the  sense  that  we  mortals 
see  each  other.  It  is,  however,  no  difficult  thing  for 
any  of  all  spirits  to  see  in  this  objective  or  external 
way,  if  they  so  desire,  or  for  any  purpose.  It  must 


MATTER   AND   SPIRIT.  221 

be  remembered  that  we  are  spirits  now  as  well  as 
materialized  beings,  and  probably  we  are  as  well 
known  in  our  spiritual  aspects,  by  our  friends  in  the 
spirit  world,  as  we  are  ourselves  by  the  memory  or 
sight  of  us  as  encased  in  the  mortal  form. 

I  said  it  required  material  organs  to  see  material 
things  ;  they  are  easily  found  by  spirits ;  the  world 
is  full  of  them.  All  the  time  there  is  a  billion  and 
almost  a  half  at  the  service  of  the  spirits.  Spirits 
have  only  to  come  en  rapport  with  the  possessor  of 
material  optics  or  auricular  ones  in  place,  to  thus  see 
the  world  of  nature  or  materiality  as  we  mortals  see 
it.  So  easy  and  so  general  is  this  that  the  spirits, 
through  mediums,  will  often  say  they  see  us  as  we 
see  each  other ;  but  I  am  sure  for  them  to  do  so, 
which  is  very  common,  they  do  it  in  the  way  sug- 
gested, which  is  one  slight  remove  from  the  direct 
objective  way.  The  spirit  has  only  to  be  conscious 
of  the  consciousness  of  the  person  by  whose  aid  or 
with  whose  organs  the  said  spirit  sees  to  see  objects 
as  he  does. 

In  one  sense,  as  I  have  said,  the  object  in  normal 
human  seeing  is  a  foreign  tiling  to  the  seer, —  a  dis- 
crete separation,  for  spirits  cannot  see,  hear,  or  touch 
matter;  only  the  image  or  sensation  of  it  reaches  the 
human  sensorium.  For  instance,  illustrating  the 
point  from  an  optical  point  of  view,  the  image  or 
picture  of  an  object  reaches  the  retina  and  is  pic- 
tured on  it,  and  that  image  or  picture  reaches  the 
consciousness  of  the  person  who  is  looking  at  it;  then 
it  may  be  said  to  be  the  pictorial  property  of  the 


222  SHADOWS. 

spirit,  and  may  be  by  the  same  source  the  property 
or  consciousness  of  the  spirit  that  is  then  en  rapport. 
Some  consideration  of  this  point,  which  is  really  a 
matter  strictly  in  the  domain  of  science,  is  important 
in  grasping  the  subject  of  the  spiritual  manifesta- 
tions, or  the  dynamics  of  this  more  or  less  occult 
subject. 

In  corroboration  of  what  has  been  said  herein,  I 
will  quote  from  the  writings  of  Eugene  Crowell, 
where  he  writes  on  this  subject,  as  follows :  — 

"  It  may  here  be  proper  to  say  something  respect- 
ing the  power  of  spirits  to  hear  our  conversation,  as 
there  are  erroneous  views  prevalent  even  among 
Spiritualists  upon  this  question.  I  have  devoted 
considerable  time  and  attention  to  this  subject,  and, 
as  the  result,  I  find  that  most  spirits,  unless  on  low 
planes,  cannot  distinctly  hear  us  converse  ;  they  more 
generally  perceive  our  thoughts ;  while,  on  the  con- 
trary, spirits  on  the  lower  planes  cannot  read  our 
thoughts,  but  can  more  readily  hear  our  conversa- 
tion. 

"Old  John  and  Big  Bear  (two  spirits)  say  their 
ability  to  hear  mortal  voices  (when  not  in  control) 
varies  in  every  house  they  visit?  In  my  house  they 
can  understand  our  conversation  best  when  a  certain 
member  of  my  family  is  present,  and  they  elsewhere 
can  hear  best  when  some  person  present  is  medium- 
istic.  In  the  presence  of  their  medium  they  can 
always  hear  distinctly  what  is  said  by  others.  Through 
other  reliable  mediums,  what  is  here  stated  has  been 
confirmed,  and  it  was  only  after  thorough  investiga- 


MATTER   AND   SPIRIT.  223 

tion  that  I  accepted  the  assertion  as  hurtful,  it  being 
at  variance  with  my  preconceived  opinions." 

With  the  foregoing  statement  and  quotation,  the 
following  experience  will  be  illustrative  and  inter- 
esting, and  will  not  only  explain  it,  but  will  explain 
many  of  the  utterances  from  the  spirit  world.  One 
of  the  most  reliable  mediums  I  have  ever  known,  and 
one  who  has  given  me  demonstrative  evidence  of  his 
genuine  power,  whose  phase  is  the  answering  of 
sealed  letters,  and  is  entitled  to  his  claim  of  keeping 
a  spirit  post-office.  After  receiving  many  answers 
through  him  from  various  spirits,  one  from  my  sister 
disturbed  me.  It  was  technically  correct,  and  had 
never  been  opened,  but  it  did  not  seem,  in  its 
extended  answer  to  my  query,  to  be  the  warm- 
hearted letter  that  my  sister  would  have  written  : 
and  if  that  was  her  now  heavenly,  platonic,  dignified 
way,  I  felt  that  she  must  be  so  changed  in  the 
undress  of  the  spirit  that  I  had  really  lost  my  sister 
even  if  I  had  found  her. 

Seeking  after  the  truth,  and  trying,  as  is  my  cus- 
tom, to  get  at  the  facts  of  the  case,  I  wrote  a  letter 
to  my  father,  John  Wetherbee,  adding  to  the  address 
inside,  "or  any  of  my  spirit  friends,"  asking  fo in- 
definite questions.  My  father  was  then  alive,  living 
in  New  York,  but  I  wrote  the  letter  as  if  it  was  for  a 
spirit.  I  had  sealed  it  up  so  that  it  could  not  be 
opened  without  my  knowing  it.  I  put  no  address  on 
the  envelope;  that  was  entirely  blank  ;  no  one  but  I 
knew  for  whom  it  was  for. 

I  went  with  it  to  this  medium,  found  him  sitting 


224  SHADOWS. 

at  his  writing-table,  took  my  seat  opposite  to  him,  and 
handed  him  the  letter.  He  said  he  was  tired,  and  so 
he  would  keep  it  till  the  next  day,  and  laid  it  on  the 
shelf  with  other  letters.  After  a  little  general  con- 
versation upon  other  matters,  as  I  knew  him  very 
well,  he  suddenly  stopped,  reached  for  the  letter  that 
he  had  placed  on  the  shelf,  and  said  the  spirit  was 
here,  and  he  would  answer  it  then.  Please  bear  in 
mind  that  the  letter  had  not  been  out  of  my  sight. 
With  the  letter  unaddressed  and  unopened  before 
him,  the  ringers  of  his  left  hand  resting  on  it,  but  not 
covering  it,  with  his  right  hand  he  wrote,  I  looking 
on  and  reading  as  he  wrote,  as  follows :  "  My  dear  son 
and  namesake,"  and  copied  the  questions  literally  in 
their  order,  and  intelligently  and  elaborately  answered 
each,  as  anyone  could  have  done  who  had  read  the 
questions,  and  then  he  ended  by  saying,  or  rather 
writing :  "  Your  once  earthly  but  now  spirit  father, 
John  Wetherbee." 

The  medium  was  very  much  surprised,  when  I 
opened  and  read  the  questions  and  name  to  him,  that 
I  was  not  satisfied.  "  What,"  said  he,  "  do  you 
expect?"  I  said:  "The  truth."  My  father  was 
alive,  and  that  lying  spirit  says :  "  Your  once  earthly 
and  now  spirit  father."  I  Avas  very  much  set  back 
by  this  outcome,  not  understanding  it  then.  One 
thing  I  was  sure  of,  the  perfect  honesty  of  the  me- 
dium, for  I  saw  the  production  was  honestly  done 
before  my  eyes,  only  the  spirit  assumed  to  be  my 
father  when  he  was  not.  I  soon  got  at  the  rationale 
of  this,  and  lost  my  interest  in  such  communications 


MATTER   AND    SPIRIT.  225 

as  identifications,  but  proved  them  to  be  spiritual 
beyond  a  doubt,  and  that  was  a  great  point  settled, 
even  if  one  was  not  sure  who  he  was  corresponding 
with. 

The  remarks  I  have  made  on  seeing  and  hearing 
by  the  spirits  explain  how  this  mistake  on  the  part 
of  the  spirits  happened.  Some  spirits  read  the  mind 
of  the  sitter.  The  spirits  controlling  the  medium, 
his  band  as  they  call  it,  do  the  autographic  work, 
reading  probably  clairvoyantly  the  letter  which  is 
unopened.  They  ought  to  be  able  to  read  the  mind 
of  the  sitter  or  the  writer  of  the  letter.  To  do  that, 
according  to  the  ideas  of  Robert  Dale  Owen  and 
Eugene  Crowell,  the  executing  spirit  must  be  of  a 
higher  grade  than  the  writer  or  sitter.  It  is  hard  to 
understand  what  higher  or  lower  grade  in  spiritual 
parlance  means,  probably  spiritually  rather  than  intel- 
lectually ;  at  any  rate,  it  is  on  a  different  system  from 
the  expression  "  higher  and  lower "  in  this  world's 
matters. 

It  was  very  evident  the  spirits  on  that  occasion, 
besides  not  being  my  father  or  my  departed  friends, 
could  not  read  my  mind,  which  then  and  all  the  time 
was  intensely  charged  with  the  thought.  I  was  full 
of  it,  expecting  some  spirit  would  say:  "You  can 
reach  your  father  by  the  mail  terrestrial,  but  I  will 
answer  your  questions."  It  almost  seems,  on  the 
principle  of  mind-reading,  that  that  might  have  been 
the  result.  Intense  as  the  thought  was  in  my  mind, 
the  spirits  controlling  this  medium  had  no  access  to 
me,  even  if  they  had  in  a  clairvoyant  way  to  the 


226  SHADOWS. 

sealed  letter.  I  think,  if  I  have  been  lucid  in  my 
statement,  one  will  see  where  and  how  the  mistake 
was  made  on  the  part  of  the  spirits.  The  band  con- 
trolling this  medium,  and  friendly  to  him,  did  the 
work  as  best  it  could ;  not  having  access  to  my  mind, 
they  did  not  know  my  father  was  alive.  I  am  glad 
they  did  not,  for  they  then  might  have  made  a  test 
of  it  for  me  when  it  would  not  have  been  one. 

I  have  many  times,  since  this  paternal  one,  had 
sealed  letters  answered  quite  satisfactorily,  and  once 
or  twice  where  the  identity  was  quite  complete, — at 
least  I  would  be  straining  harder  if  I  undertook  to 
prove  it  a  fiction  than  I  would  to  consider  it  what 
it  claimed  to  be.  As  I  did  not  relate  the  circum- 
stances of  the  letter  or  show  its  questionable  genesis, 
but  as  an  illustration  of  the  subject  treated,  as  well 
as  to  show  the  difficulties  attending  the  identification 
of  spirits  generally,  I  will  add  in  closing  an  account 
of  one,  that  at  least  approximates  to  identification. 

I  had  a  reason  for  writing  a  letter  to  a  certain 
spirit  friend,  to  ask  his  opinion  and  advice,  and,  in 
the  course  of  a  few  days  I  received  an  answer  from 
that  spirit,  containing  also  the  letter  I  had  sent 
unopened.  I  put  the  missive  in  my  pocket  to  read 
at  leisure,  and  forgot  all  about  it.  On  my  way  home, 
I  stopped  at  Mrs.  Mary  Hardy's,  the  well-known 
medium,  by  appointment,  and  found  a  friend  waiting 
there  for  me.  We  were  going  to  have  a  sitting 
together.  During  the  sitting,  the  spirit  came  that  I 
had  written  to,  and  my  friend  said  to  the  spirit: 
"  Did  you  receive  the  letter  that  John  wrote  you  the 


MATTER   AND    SPIRIT.  227 

other  day?"  "Yes,"  said  the  spirit,  "and  I  have 
answered  it,  and  he  has  got  it  now  in  his  pocket." 

That  reminded  me  of  the  fact  which  I  had  forgot- 
ten, and  I  said  to  my  friend  in  his  surprise :  "  That  is 
so ;  I  got  it  this  morning  and  forgot  all  about  it,"  and 
taking  it  out  of  my  pocket,  I  said  to  him:  "  There  it 
is."  I  do  not  see  very  easily  how  that  could  be  any- 
thing else  than  a  spirit's  reply,  and  it  seems  to  ine 
it  would  be  straining  some  not  to  admit  it  to 
have  been  actually,  under  the  circumstances,  from 
the  very  spirit  to  whom  I  had  written.  The  clair- 
voyant eyes  of  the  spirit  could  have  seen  possibly  the 
message  in  my  pocket,  and  thus  got  his  information, 
but  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  was  from  the  identical 
spirit  who  knew  the  fact  legitimately. 

I  have  no  question  of  the  ability  of  reaching  spirits 
and  getting  intelligent  answers  by  writing  in  this 
way,  but  there  is  apt  to  be  an  uncertainly  as  to  the 
identification,  as  was  the  case  when  I  wrote  to  my 
living  father  in  the  form,  as  if  he  was  a  spirit,  and 
got  a  reply  from  an  alias,  who  assumed  to  be  my 
"once  earthly  and  now  spirit  father."  I  have  pretty 
clear  ideas  how  this  is  done,  and  why  it  is  done  by 
the  spirits  in  the  interest  or  benefit  of  the  medium, 
and  the  fact  of  the  work  being  done  by  spirits  settles 
the  important  part  of  the  question,  for  if  one  spirit 
can  come,  even  a  tricky  one,  so  can  a  right  and  true 
one  by  the  same  law,  if  the  conditions  are  right. 

If  that  spirit  who  wrote  the  answer  to  me,  assum- 
ing to  be  my  once  earthly  father,  had  been  Theodore 
Parker,  or  any  high-toned  spirit,  on  the  principle 


228  SHADOWS. 

suggested  by  Robert  Dale  Owen  and  Eugene  Crowell, 
to  whom  I  have  referred,  he  could  have  read  the 
strong  desire  already  then  formulated  in  my  mind, 
and  get  the  bottom  facts  in  the  case,  and  he  would  not 
have  assumed  to  have  been  my  father.  I  can  con- 
ceive how  such  a  spirit  might  have  given  me  a  per- 
fect identification.  I  can  conceive,  also,  how  such  a 
spirit  might  not  have  fancied  my  deception,  and 
paid  me  in  kind.  That  was  the  way  the  medium 
explained  this  affair.  It  was  not  satisfactory  to  me, 
for  I  know  my  motive  was  good,  and  that  I  was 
honestly  seeking  after  truth.  One  can  see  there  is 
great  difficulty  in  knowing  who  the  invisible  really 
is  that  responds  to  you.  it  was  a  great  pleasure  to 
me  to  know  beyond  a  question  that  the  spirit  was  a 
bogus  father,  and  to  know,  also,  that  the  medium 
was  honest  clear  through.  It  is  a  pleasure,  also,  to 
know  that  I  have  had  some  communications,  of  which 
I  have  spoken,  through  the  same  amanuensis  that 
were  in  every  way  authentic. 

The  object  of  stating  this  point  so  minutely  is  for 
the  guide  of  others, —  for  one  to  see  there  are  disabili- 
ties to  encounter,  and  not  be  unnecessarily  suspicious 
of  the  medium,  for  the  deficiencies  may  be  farther  in. 


XXII. 

A   PENTJMBRAL   SKETCH. 

An  afternoon  with  the  spirits.  —  A  departed  friend 
returns  from  over  the  river,  and  owns  up. 

The  following  article  I  copy  almost  verbatim  from 
one  I  wrote  and  had  published  in  the  Banner  of 
Light.  It  embodies  some  interesting  matters  that 
made  a  deep  impression  on  me,  as  being  unquestion- 
ably spiritual.  The  incidents  that  make  the  article 
interesting  to  me  come  under  the  head  of  trifles  in  a 
worldly  sense,  if  anything  is  trilling  that  has  the 
luster  of  a  spiritual  source  on  it.  I  will,  however, 
present  the  article  without  much  preface,  letting  it 
speak  for  itself,  which  is  as  follows :  — 

"Full  oft  my  feelings  make  me  start, 

Like  footprints  on  some  desert  shore, 
As  if  the  chambers  of  my  heart 

Had  heard  their  shadowy  steps  before." 

I  begin  with  these  lines  very  much  as  we  sing  the 
"Sweet  Uy-and-Bye  "  at  a  seance,  for  the  sake  of  the 
proper  conditions,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  weird 
thought  that  the  verse  suggests  expresses  the  state 
of  my  mind  at  the  present  moment,  having  been 


230  SHADOWS. 

thinking  of  a  late  experience,  and  also  while  having 
the  experience.  It  seems  to  be  a  proper  state  of 
mind  in  which  to  relate  it.  The  experience  was 
exceedingly  interesting  to  me.  Whether  I  can  make 
it  so  to  the  reader  remains  to  be  seen. 

Now,  do  not  expect  too  much  after  this  shadowy 
beginning,  and  thus  be  disappointed,  but  remember 
that  sometimes  the  simplicities  are  in  order,  and  very 
often  with  me,  and,  doubtless,  with  many  others, 
some  trifling  incident  among  the  manifestations  will 
answer  the  earnest,  hungrv  call  in  the  following  lines 

o    «/  o 

affirmatively  (it  is  necessary  to  print  them  in  this 
article,  though  quoted  before  in  one  of  the  chapters 
of  this  book,  as  the  reader  will  see)  when  some 
wonderful  manifestation  might  not,  —  the  waters  of 
Jordan,  you  remember,  cured  the  royal  leper  when 
the  larger  rivers  of  his  own  country  would  not. 

"Ah,  blow  me  the  scent  of  one  lily  to  tell 

That  it  grew  outside  of  the  world  at  most ; 
Ah,  show  me  a  plume  to  touch,  or  a  shell, 
That  whispers  of  some  unearthly  coast." 

Two  of  my  friends  from  Providence  called  on  me 
the  other  afternoon.  One  of  them  was  a  Spiritualist 
in  a  mild,  quiet  way,  not  conspicuously  identitied 
with  the  subject,  but  was  a  very  firm  believer, —  had 
had  evidences  of  its  basic  truth  in  his  own  home. 
The  other  was  a  legal  gentleman  of  some  repute,  not 
a  Spiritualist,  I  was  going  to  say,  but  it  is  hard  to 
tell  who  is  and  who  is  not,  this  thought  has  so  pene- 
trated the  general  mind.  It  seems  he  had  been  at 


A    PENUMBBAL   SKETCH.  231 

some  sittings  at  some  earlier  date,  and  thought  there 
was  something  in  it  besides  delusion  and  humbug- 
gery,  but  had  never  been  at  a  spiritual  meeting ;  so 
neither  was  known  in  the  city. 

These  two  men,  whom  I  will  call  Daniel  and 
Ezekiel,  because  these  two  names  popped  into  my 
mind,  though  in  no  sense  suggestive  of  my  friends, 
who  are  neither  prophets,  or  the  sons  of  prophets, 
both  being  men  of  the  world,  and  of  business. 

"Well,"  said  they,  after  the  civilities  were  over, 
"  what  is  there  going  on  this  afternoon  ?  Where  can 
we  go  and  see  something?"  —  meaning  spiritual 
manifestations.  We  looked  over  the  list ;  there  were 
five  or  six  interesting  chances,  but  we  could  take  in 
but  one,  and  as  there  was  not  much  time  before  they 
would  begin,  and,  possibly,  then  the  one  selected 
would  be  full ;  but,  like  Luath,  the  dog  of  which 
Burns  speaks, — 

"His  honest,  sonsie,  baws'nt  face, 
Aye  gat  him  friends  iu  ilka  place." 

So  they  had  no  fears  on  that  score,  but  took  their 
chances,  and  went  to  see  the  "Berry  sisters,"  who 
are  materializing  mediums,  as  well  as  for  other  phys- 
ical manifestations,  and  we  moved  in  their  direction. 
Though  it  did  not  happen  to  be  a  materialization 
seance,  when  we  got  there,  as  we  expected,  it  was  one 
of  the  occasions  when  none  of  us  were  disappointed. 

As  I  have  said,  Daniel  and  Ezekiel  were  entire 
strangers  to  the  medium,  and  were  not  introduced 
for  obvious  reasons,  and  they  were  unknown  also  to 


232  SHADOWS. 

all  the  persons  present.  This  happened  to  be  Miss 
Ellen  Berry's  dark  circle.  Daniel  did  not  seem  to 
get  much  during  this  seance  (some  people  somehow 
always  seem  to  get  more  than  others).  With  Ezekiel 
it  was  otherwise.  The  medium,  who  was  seated  at 
some  distance  from  the  latter  (Daniel  sitting  at  one 
end  of  a  twelve-foot  table,  and  Ezekiel  side  of  me 
at  the  other  end),  she  being  seated  about  in  the 

center,  said  she  heard  the  name  of  Ezekiel  H ; 

that  was  the  full  name  of  my  friend  ;  and  later,  when 
the  medium  was  sitting  nearer  to  him,  the  same 
name  came,  and  also  one  or  two  of  his  relatives* 
names  were  mentioned ;  they  also  wrote  some  mes- 
sages. They  were  from  two  or  three  different  spirits, 
and  were  remarkably  good  tests.  I  was  presuming 

Ezekiel  H was  the  name  of  my  friend,  but  it 

seems  it  was  an  uncle  of  the  same  name,  and  the 
message  showed  the  fact,  besides  his  information  in 
reply  to  a  question  from  me,  as  I  did  not  know  he 
had  an  uncle  who  was  a  namesake. 

I  always  am  interested  in  tests;  but  I  generally 
have  to  get  them  by  observation,  as  in  this  case,  for 
personally  my  spirit  friends  are  apt  to  be  known  to 
the  mediums,  for  my  pen  is  such  a  tell-tale.  On  this 
occasion,  however,  1  not  only  realized  my  friend's 
tests,  which  were  unmistakably  so  to  him,  and  there- 
fore to  me,  but  I  had  them  directly,  also,  and  this  is 
what  I  referred  to  when  I  began  this  article.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  speak  of  Albert  and  Hattie,  or  the 
spirits  of  Amory  and  Huntington,  who  manifested  to 
me  for  reasons  mentioned;  they  would  hardly  be 


A  PENUMBRAL  SKETCH.  233 

tests ;  and  yet  in  Hattie's  manifestation  there  was 
something  worth  mentioning.  She  kissed  me  on  the 
forehead  and  whispered  her  name,  and  in  doing  so 
she  was  so  near  I  felt  her  hair  as  it  touched  my  head 
and  face,  and  the  medium  being  seated  closely  by 
my  side,  and  I  holding  her  hand,  I  know  she  did  not 
and  could  not  move,  and  the  circle  being  unbroken 
I  know  that  it  was  some  unearthly  head  and  hair  that 
whispered  and  came  in  contact  with  mine;  and  I  hope 
the  writer  of  that  verse  who  wanted  a  shell  "that 
whispered  of  some  unearthly  coast,"  or  anybody  else 
who  is  hungry  in  that  direction,  will  take  my  word 
that  if  an  "  unearthly  head  "  will  answer  as  well  as  a 
"shell,"  or  "the  scent  of  a  lily,"  that  it  has  been  my 
experience.  I  seem  to  be  spinning  this  out ;  but  I 
have  not  yet  reached  the  circumstance  that  has 
inspired  my  pen. 

My  friend,  Seth  E.  Brown, —  I  will  be  excused  in 
using  names,  I  am  sure  he  will  not  object  to  it,  and 
I  am  something  like  Junius,  who  wrote  the  letters, 
who  liked  to  deal  with  persons,  not  with  shadows;  yet 
I  am  not  like  him, for  I  do  and  am  dealing  with  "shad- 
ows "  in  this  book;  but  now,  iu  dealing  with  Brown, 
I  am  dealing  with  a  person  who  now  may  pass  for  a 
"shadow."  But  it  pleases  me  to  feel  that  the  most 
substantial  things  in  the  universe  are  spirits ;  they 
are  the  real,  we  are  the  fleeting.  "  We,"  as  Emerson 
says,  "are  only  the  (lux  of  matter  over  the  wires  of 
thought." 

My  friend  Brown  died  very  suddenly  about  five  or 
six  weeks  ago  (May,  1884),  and  who  until  a  year  ago 


234  SHADOWS. 

was  a  joint  tenant  with  me  in  the  business  office  I 
occupied,  and  we  had  been  together  in  this  way  for 
several  years.  We  were  very  intimate  in  a  business 
way,  and  many  an  hour  have  we  chatted  on  these 
spiritual  matters.  He  was  not  a  Spiritualist,  but 
was  very  hospitable  to  the  subject;  probably  like  many 
others  he  believed  more  than  he  had  the  courage  to 
admit.  He  thought  I  had  had  great  evidence,  and 
wished  that  he  had.  He  often  said:  "We  will  all 
know  some  day  whether  it  is  true ; "  in  fact,  after  any 
long  colloquy  on  the  subject,  that  was  his  stereotyped 
ending, — meaning  by  it  that  when  we  died  we  should 
know  then  whether  we  were  still  alive.  He  generally 
said,  also,  or  did  sometimes,  that  if  he  died  before  I 
did  he  would  come  and  let  me  know  if  it  was  true. 
"  So  do,"  I  replied,  and  said  ditto.  It  was  not  many 
weeks  before  he  died  that  I  had  one  of  these  chats 
with  him,  which  was  ended  with  that  usual  remark. 

While  at  this  seance  of  which  I  have  been  speak- 
ing, with  Daniel  and  Ezekiel,  and  during  the  manifes- 
tations that  were  then  going  on,  I  had  some  very 
vigorous  pounds  on  the  top  of  my  head,  and  I  said 

mentally,  as  that  was  the  usual  way,  "Is  that ?" 

(mentioning  the  name  of  a  spirit  friend,  but  not 
speaking  it  vocally),  and  got  one  smart  touch  by  the 
spirit  on  my  head  which  means  "No"  as  the  response. 
I  continued  then  in  the  same  way  to  ask  the  names 
of  my  departed  friends,  and  the  response  was  "  No" 
every  time,  and  then  Brown's  name  popped  into  my 
mind,  and  almost  before  I  got  it  mentally  formulated, 
as  if  the  spirit  knew  it  as  quickly  as  I  did,  the  "  Yes" 


A  PENUMBRAL  SKETCH.  235 

came  quite  vigorously,  and  I  said:  "L?  that  really 
you,  Seth?"  only  I  did  not  say  "Seth"  vocally,  but 
thought  it.  Besides  the  three  pounds  on  my  head,  I 
got  quite  a  number  on  my  back,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
it  was  the  spirit  of  my  friend.  It  was  almost  as  if  he 
had  said :  "  Did  I  not  tell  you,  John,  that  I  would 
come?" 

The  medium  later,  and  sitting  at  another  part  of 
the  table  farther  from  me,  said,  addressing  me  :  "  That 
friend  of  yours  is  still  with  you ;  he  seems  very  glad ; 
his  name  is  Seth,  I  cannot  get  the  rest  of  his  name." 
That  was  right,  but  the  medium  did  not  know  it,  for 
his  name  had  not. then  been  mentioned.  I  had  been 
very  particular.  When  the  room  was  lighted  again, 
I  found  I  had  some  messages  written  by  the  spirits 
the  same  way  that  my  friend  Ezekiel  had,  of  which  I 
have  spoken.  I  will  mention  here  that  when  the 
messages  were  written  to  me  and  to  Ezekiel,  I  held 
the  medium's  hand,  and  know  that  she  did  not  do 
the  writing,  and  with  that  company  it  is  absurd  to 
talk  of  confederates.  I  am  cutting  this  short,  and 
leaving  out  many  of  the  points  of  this  seance  for  the 
sake  of  brevity,  and  confine  myself  as  much  as  possi- 
ble to  the  Brown  complexion  of  this  experience. 

Among  the  messages  from  Albert,  Hattie,  and  oth- 
ers was  this  one  from  Brown:  "JbAw,  /  believe  it 
now. — Seth"  This  was  a  very  short  message ;  but  it 
seemed  very  appropriate,  and  what  I  ought  to  have 
expected  from  him,  if  it  was  he.  The  medium  never 
knew  Mr.  Brown,  or  my  connection  with  him.  I  was 
not  expecting  him  nor  thinking  of  him,  and  I  began 


236  SHADOWS. 

to  exhaust  the  names  of  my  departed  friends  when 
his  name  occurred  to  me.  I  really  think  it  was  he, 
and  his  message  though  short  was  full  of  meaning, — 
multum  in parvo, —  "I  believe  it  now."  It  certainly 
made  an  intelligent  connection  with  our  antecedent 
talks  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  wholly  unknown 
to  the  medium  and  anyone  else  in  the  room  but 
me. 

At  the  close  of  this  seance  my  friends,  as  well  as 
myself,  felt  as  if  the  two  hours  we  had  spent  with 
Miss  Berry  as  being  the  "  gates  ajar,"  and  among  the 
departed,  had  not  been  time  wasted.  We  all  three 
talked  over  the  matter  by  ourselves.  Ezekiel  had 
oral  and  other  tests,  and  many  remarkable  messages, 
which  were  what  might  have  been  expected  from  the 
spirits  communicating.  One  message  from  a  distin- 
guished, but  departed,  lawyer  of  his  city  was  very 
satisfactory.  I  knew  the  man  by  reputation,  but  did 
not  know  him  as  in  any  way  connected  with  Ezekiel, 
but  it  seems  he  was  on  quite  intimate  terms,  and  the 
message  was  in  keeping  with  it,  and  he  went  home 
pretty  strong  in  the  faith.  In  fact,  we  all  three  can 
be  counted  on  as  Spiritualists,  if  there  were  any 
doubts  before. 

I  began  this  penumbral  sketch  with  a  verse  of 
poetry,  and  perhaps  it  will  be  as  well  for  symmetry  to 
end  with  one.  I  sometimes  think  a  verse,  with  a 
sublime  and  fitting  thought  in  it,  is  more  suggestive 
and  ornamental  than  a  peroration,  so  I  draft  on  the 
following :  — 


A   PENUMBRAL   SKETCH.  237 

"  I  feel  their  touch  upon  my  hair, 

Upon  my  cheek  and  on  my  brow ; 
I  know  that  they  are  everywhere, 
That  they  are  with  me  even  now." 


XXIII. 

MATERIALIZATION. 

Affirmations.  —  Critical   comments.  — Illustrative 
Experiences. 

I  will  begin  a  chapter  on  this  subject  by  saying 
the  materialization  of  human  forms,  or  what  is  called 
by  that  name,  is  a  fact,  —  that  is,  human  forms  are 
produced,  extemporized  so  to  speak,  into  visible, 
tangible,  or  sensuous  apparitions.  I  firmly  believe 
this,  both  theoretically  and  practically, —  have  had 
the  evidence  that  makes  me  sure  of  what  I  so  posi- 
tively state. 

Speaking  of  it  theoretically,  I  have  had,  as  the 
reader  of  this  book  will  know,  in  my  own  house,  and 
under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  sensuous,  tangi- 
ble, and  intelligent  evidence  of  the  materialization 
of  a  seemingly  human  hand  that  I  could  grasp,  and 
have  had  that  evidence  hundreds  of  times.  I  have  had 
also  the  handling  and  close  ocular  inspection  of  hands 
of  apparent  flesh  and  bones,  in  fact,  real  human 
hands,  that  were  not  attached  to  human  bodies,  but 
were  as  alive  and  pliable  and  sensitive  as  my  own. 
Now,  therefore,  giving  us  a  hand  materialized,  the 


MATERIALIZATION.  281) 

production  of  the  whole  form  is  possible  aliio.  These 
experiences  of  mine  were  long  before  the  advent  of 
the  full-form  manifestations ;  this,  then,  is  my  ground 
for  believing  in  the  phase  theoretically. 

I  have  had  experience  with  about  all  of  the  medi- 
ums for  materialization  who  have  been  in  this  vicin- 
ity, and  have  had  some  ocular  proof  that  these  forms 
are,  sometimes  at  least,  what  they  claim  to  be  ;  not  to 
the  extent  I  wish,  but  added  to  the  fact  that,  with 
the  majority  of  mediums  for  this  phase,  I  have  had 
perfect  proof  that  personating,  acting  a  part,  or  con- 
federacy, is  not  the  modus  operandi  of  their  produc- 
tion. This,  then,  is  my  ground  for  believing  in  the 
phase  practically. 

I  must,  also,  with  my  experience,  add  that,  to  me, 
as  a  whole,  it  is  not  the  most  interesting  phase  of  the 
spiritual  phenomena.  I  cau  say,  with  Leigli  Hunt :  — 

"  How  sweet  it  were  if,  without  feeble  fright, 
Or  dying  of  the  dreadful  beauteous  sight, 
An  angel  came  to  us,  and  we  could  bear 
To  see  it  issue  from  the  silent  air 
At  evening  in  our  room — " 

because  the  evidence  through  the  sense  of  sight,  as 
an  eminent  savant  has  said,  is  stronger  testimony  than 
evidence  through  the  senses  of  hearing  and  touch. 
I  am  hardly  prepared  to  admit  that,  it  depends  so 
much  on  what  we  are  testing,  and  our  intellectual 
make-up,  as  connected  with  our  several  senses.  Hut, 
referring  to  the  poetic  suggestion,  the  manifestations 
of  spirit  forms  have  never  come  "  at  evening  in  our 
room"  in  a  way  that  would  respond  to  Leigh  Hunt's 


240  SHADOWS. 

"sweet"  possibility,  as  suggested  by  the  quotation, 
and,  in  fact,  has  been  the  dream  or  fancy,  bordering 
almost  upon  expectation  of  the  poets  generally,  as 
memory  and  records  will  show.  So,  as  I  have  said, 
believing  in  the  fact  both  theoretically  and  practi- 
cally, I  am  not  fascinated  with  the  materialized 
return  of  departed  spirits  as  I  would  be  if  they  came 
in  a  less  questionable  manner.  I  hardly  know  how 
to  express  what  I  want  to  say;  but  I  trust  in  the 
elaboration  of  my  thought  I  will  make  my  ideas 
manifest  and  manifestly  friendly  to  the  phase,  before 
I  get  through  the  chapter. 

In  spiritual  manifestations,  as  in  scientific  research, 
we  must  make  the  most  of  the  best  conditions  we  can 
get.  One  cannot  always  command  his  conditions, 
whether  spiritual  or  scientific.  We  are  obliged  in 
astronomy  to  look  at  the  sun  or  stars  through  forty 
miles  or  more  of  atmosphere ;  it  is  possible,  if  we 
could  command  an  independent  standpoint,  we  might 
have  to  modify  some  of  our  conclusions.  Now,  it 
seems  darkness  is  a  requisite  condition  for  the  pro- 
duction of  materialized  spirit  forms ;  not  total  dark- 
ness, but  a  very  few  degrees  above  it,  and  that,  cer- 
tainly, is  one  of  the  disabilities,  especially  in  this 
particular  phase,  as  recognition  is  the  attractive 
point;  and,  therefore,  the  spirits  may  as  well  not 
come  for  that  purpose,  unless  there  can  be  light 
enough  to  be  unmistakable.  I  am  not  finding  any 
fault,  for  I  am  only  too  glad  for  their  apparition 
any  way. 

I  am  very  hospitable  to  the  spiritual  manifesta- 


MATERIALIZATION.  241 

tions  generally,  especially  to  materializations,  hoping 
the  latter  will  improve,  as  they  have,  to  a  great 
degree,  already,  and  that  I  yet  may  be  as  fascinated 
with  them  as  I  am  with  many  of  the  simpler,  yet 
intelligent,  phenomena;  but  all  this  wishing  and 
hoping  need  not  prevent  the  expression  of  my 
thoughts  or  views  on  the  subject,  even  as  it  appears 
to  me,  and  to  say,  though  in  one  instance,  I  can  say 
I  recognized  a  spirit,  and  this  fact  of  a  positive 
recognition  threw  a  luster  on  the  phase  generally,  by 
making  it  possible  that  some  others  that  I  ought 
have,  but  could  not  recognize,  may  have  been  the 
persons  they  claimed  to  be.  As  the  remembrance  of 
that  satisfactory  one,  with  its  accompanying  luster, 
recedes  into  the  distant  past,  I  sometimes  wonder 
myself  if  it  was  really  so,  and  I  seem  to  need  repe- 
titions to  keep  me  firm  in  the  rut  of  that  one  special 
experience. 

As  I  read  my  recorded  story  of  it  now,  which  I 
know  I  wrote  truthfully,  and  as  I  felt  the  reading  of 
it,  and  the  memory  of  it,  among  so  many  less  impres- 
sively true  ones  since,  have  detracted  some  of  the 
vividness  of  that  one,  and  I  find  myself  asking  in  my 
own  mind  if  that  was  really  so,  paled  a  little,  like  a, 
neglected  photograph  taken  years  .ago,  and  yet  from 
my  habits  of  making  records  I  know  it  was  so. 

Now  for  illustration  of  the  subject  generally.  I  can 
remember  very  distinctly  my  dark-eyed  sister.  I  can 
remember  her  as  plainly  as  if  she  now  sat  before  me; 
and  if  she  should  appear  at  one  of  these  seances  as 
plainly  as  I  now  see  her  in  my  mind,  how  readily  I 


242  SHADOWS. 

could  recognize  her.  But  this  spirit  has  never 
appeared  so ;  she  has  come,  so  the  form  has  said,  but 
in  such  questionable  shape  I  never  could  have  known 
her ;  and,  if  she  is  around  me  now,  she  knows  I  could 
not  recognize  a  young  woman  of  dark  curly  hair,  and 
large,  bright,  black  eyes,  dressed  flowingly  in  white, 
her  head-dress  flowing,  and  white,  also,  not  a  speck 
of  dark  hair  in  sight,  and  no  speculation  in  her  eye. 
These  phantasms  —  no,  not  phantasms,  they  are  too 
human  and  muscular  for  that  —  do  not  attract  me  as 
the  actual  presence  of  my  spirit  friends,  or  even  as 
being  the  personal  presence  of  spirits.  This  was  my 
experience  in  ocular  recognitions  until  my  friend 
Albert  appeared,  and  it  was  so  like  him,  though 
almost  speechless,  with  his  manifest,  quiet  manner, 
the  whole  phase  rose  higher  in  my  estimation,  and  I 
have  the  faith  that  it  will  go  on  improving,  and  these 
disabilities  grow  less  and  less. 

It  seemed  to  me,  before  the  time  of  which  I  am 
speaking,  and  so  it  has  since  that  in  observing  others' 
recognitions,  that  they  came  to  their  conclusions 
quicker  than  I  could.  It  is  possible  there  is  a  differ- 
ence in  people's  eyes,  some  seeing  better  in  the  dark 
than  others.  I  have  sometimes  wondered  if  people 
had  not  intuitive  help,  perhaps  some  clairvoyant 
power  supplementing  the  ocular.  I  am  only  making 
these  observations  to  show  the  state  of  my  own  mind, 
not  for  any  special  information  or  instruction,  or  I 
would  write  an  essay  on  the  subject,  which  this  cer- 
tainly is  not. 

The  most  interesting  feature  to  me  in  these  materi- 


MATERIALIZATION.  243 

alizations,  and  which  I  considei  spiritual  manifesta- 
tions, is  not  in  the  personalities  of  the  apparitions,  but 
in  the  fact  that  they  are  spirit  manifestations.  When 
I  have  satisfied  myself  that  a  woman,  passing  from 
us  and  going  behind  a  curtain  into  the  triangular 
space  in  the  corner  of  a  room,  and  the  woman  by 
measurement  is  under  five  feet  in  stature,  and  there 
is  no  way  for  a  confederate  to  go  into  that  enclosure 
without  my  seeing  him  or  her  enter,  and  then  there 
comes  out  of  that  triangular  space  into  the  room  a 
man  six  feet  high,  and  I  shake  hands  with  him,  and 
know  he  is  alive  and  not  on  stilts,  but  standing  or 
walking  firmly  and  naturally  on  the  iloor,  I  know 
then  there  is  no  possible  metamorphosis  from  the 
medium  into  that  spirit.  It  is  of  no  consequence 
whether  the  apparition  is  John  Brown  or  General 
Burnside  or  my  uncle, —  that  is  not  the  point. 

There  is  a  human-looking  form  that  I  know  is  not 
the  medium,  and  is  not  a  confederate,  and  being  then 
an  extemporized  one  it  must  be  spiritual,  because  it 
is  an  intelligent  act,  and  an  intelligent  apparition, 
and  there  is  no  intelligence  that  is  not  connected 
with  either  a  mortal  or  a  spirit.  That,  then,  of  itself 
is  an  interesting  fact,  and  a  wonderful  one.  If  this 
fact  or  apparition  claims  to  be  some  departed  friend 
of  mine,  that  I  would  know  if  I  saw  lam  or  her,  and 
yet  do  not  know  the  apparition,  that  does  not  add  to 
the  interest  of  the  manifestation  ;  it  detracts,  if  any- 
thing. The  spirit  had  better  remain  a  "beauty  and 
a  mystery"  than  assume  to  be  some  special  personal 
friend  that  is  unrecognizable. 


244  SHADOWS. 

I  cannot  think  of  a  departed  friend,  male  or  female, 
that  I  could  not  recognize  in  a  light  even  below  the 
reading  point,  if  they  came  looking  as  they  did  when 
I  knew  them  or  last  saw  them.  If  they  are  in  any 
disguise  by  unusual  drapery  or  growth,  so  that  we 
can  only  take  their  word  for  it,  having  necessarily 
our  doubts,  and  deficient  as  they  all  are  in  loquacity 
or  fluency  or  loudness  of  speech,  they  might  as  well 
remain  incog.  The  interest  centering  in  form  mani- 
festations at  present  to  me  is  much  more  in  the  fact 
than  in  the  recognitions.  I  make  a  great  distinction 
between  intellectual  and  optical  recognitions,  and  I 
shall  say  a  word  further  on  that  distinction. 

Now  I  will  relate  a  few  experiences  of  the  many  I 
have  had  that  have  interested  me.  I  will  begin  with 
this  one.  I  went  into  a  cabinet  at  the  commencement 
of  a  seance  with  the  medium,  at  her  request.  She 
was  clothed  as  ordinarily  in  a  dark  slate-colored  dress. 
She  sat  in  a  chair  facing  the  opening,  and  quite  near 
as  it  was  a  shallow  one.  I  stood  front  of  her,  back 
to  the  opening,  holding  each  of  her  hands  in  one  of 
mine.  There  was  a  purpose  in  it  as  the  reader  will 
see.  When  she  said  "  That  will  do,"  I  then  dropped 
her  hands,  and  turned  to  go  out.  I  did  not  move  a 
step  forward  as  the  cabinet  was  shallow,  as  I  have 
said ;  but  parting  the  curtain  I  was  visible  to  persons 
in  the  circle  who  began  to  notice  me,  holding  up  their 
hands  or  saying :  "  See,  see  it  I  "  I  thought  to  myself 
they  were  taking  me  for  a  spirit.  On  turning  a  little 
1  saw  what  they  had  noticed ;  it  was  a  female  spirit 
close  behind  me  clothed  in  white,  arms  extended; 


MATERIALIZATION.  245 

the  spirit  was  taller  than  I  was,  as  I  had  to  look  up 
a  little  at  her  face,  while  the  medium  was  shorter. 

The  principal  thing  to  notice  here  was  the  impos- 
sibility for  a  woman,  dressed  darkly,  sitting  in  a 
chair  whose  contiguity  I  had  not  left,  to  appear 
instantly  as  a  taller  person,  clothed  in  white.  I  am  as 
sure  there  were,  on  this  occasion,  two  personalities 

—  the  medium  and   the  spirit,  and  no  confederate 
assistance  — as  I  am  that  I  am  now  writing  on  paper. 
I  may  be  different  from  many  others,  but  how  com- 
paratively insignificant  is  the  more  or  less  doubtful 
recognition  of  some  departed  friend  by  the  side  of 
this    perfect   evidence   of   an    extemporized   human 
form  ? 

On  one  occasion,  when  attending  a  very  satisfac- 
tory seance,  where  the  cabinet  was  a  curtained,  shal- 
low alcove,  with  no  entrance  to  it  but  from  the  room 
where  we  were  sitting,  and  in  sight  of  us,  I  am 
as  positive  there  was  but  one  person  in  the  jnclosure 

—  that  being  the  medium  —  as  I  am  that  earth  is 
attended  with   but   one  moon.     Many  recognitions 
were  made  of  the  spirits  appearing  from  time  to  time 
by  some  of  the  persons  in  the  circle;  they  were  not 
very  convincing  to  me  as  recognitions,  but  that  was 
no  concern  of  mine.     The  fact  of  their  being  appari- 
tions at  all  is  what  interested  me,  and  of  that  I  have 
no  doubt.     At  last,  a  female  spirit  appeared  at  the 
parted  curtain,  and  signified  by  a  nod,  after  parties 
had  severally  said  "  Is  it  for  me  ? "  that  it  was  for 
me,  and  I  went  up  to  the  cabinet.     I  presumed  it  or 
her  to  be  one  of  my  friends  that  I  could  not  recog- 


246  SHADOWS. 

nize.  As  usual,  this  form  was  voiceless.  I  felt  that 
if  I  had  said  :  "  Is  it  Hannah  or  Emeline  or  Adeline  ?  " 
she  would  have  nodded  affirmatively,  but  I  asked  no 
such  leading  question.  I  said  in  a  hospitable  voice 
that  I  was  glad  to  see  her,  whoever  she  was ;  hoped 
she  was  well  and  happy,  and  having  a  good  time 
generally ;  to  which  she,  in  her  mute  way,  assented. 
I  shook  hands  with  her,  and  got  such  a  good,  solid 
grip  of  an  apparently  muscular  hand  that,  in  my 
mind,  I  concluded  to  keep  it,  and  did  so,  by  no 
means  to  pull  her  out  into  exhibition,  but  simply 
"  to  hold  the  fort." 

In  a  second  or  two  the  spirit,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  intimated  a  withdrawal  of  her  hand,  and 
I  advanced  closer,  saying :  "  Do  you  want  me  to 
enter?"  She  signified  "Yes,"  and  I  went  into  the 
pitch-dark  enclosure,  her  hand  firmly  in  mine,  I  hav- 
ing, as  I  said,  a  good  grip  with  my  right  hand.  With 
my  left  hand  I  felt  of  the  medium,  who  was  sitting 
down,  so  I  had  perfect  evidence  it  was  not  a  dummy, 
but  the  medium,  I  still  holding  the  hand  of  the 
spirit.  When  conscious  of  there  being  two  pres- 
ences, I  found  nothing  in  my  hand,  only  my  closed 
hand  which  had  never  relaxed ;  the  spirit  hand  that 
I  had  held  was  not,  withdrawn  ;  it  had  dissolved  into 
nothing, —  dematerialized,  as  it  is  called, —  and  I  had, 
as  I  have  said,  an  empty  hand.  The  medium,  at 
that  point,  came  out  of  the  trance.  I  parted  the 
curtain,  and  we  two  came  out  into  the  room. 

I  am  sure,  so  were  all,  that  a  few  moments  before 
there  were  three  presences  in  that  cabinet, —  the 


MATERIALIZATION.  247 

spirit,  the  medium,  and  this  scribe ;  there  were  now 
only  two, —  the  extemporized  form,  apparently  as 
human  and  substantial  as  the  remaining  two,  had 
dissolved  again  into  the  invisible  air.  This,  then,  is 
an  evidence  of  the  production  of  a  form,  visible  and 
tangible  to  the  senses ;  to  me  it  is  incomparably  a 
more  satisfactory  evidence  than  what  have  been 
recognitions  in  my  presence,  because  the  fact  itself 
is  demonstrated.  The  impression  that  I  am  trying 
to  give  in  this  dissertation  is  that  the  value  of  the 
fact  is  of  more  consequence  than  any  claimed  person- 
ality, whether  historical  characters  or  from  our  sev- 
eral tribal  or  social  circles. 

From  what  I  have  seen,  and  am  sure  of,  in  this 
department  of  Spiritualism,  I  have  faith  that  it  will 
continue  to  improve.  I  see  already  a  difference  in 
the  conditions  on  different  occasions  in  the  make-up 
of  the  circle,  affecting  the  quality  of  the  manifesta- 
tions and  the  degree  of  light  permitted.  I  have  been 
in  carefully-selected  circles  where  the  presentations 
or  productions  were  great  improvements,  even  by 
the  same  medium,  over  those  in  the  presence  of 
promiscuous  gatherings.  I  am  not  without  faith 
that  this  phase  of  the  phenomena  has  come  to  sta}% 
and  to  improve;  and  the  apparitions  improve ;  and, 
exhibited  under  a  brighter  light,  the  recognitions 
will  be  more  apparently  genuine  and  unmistakaable; 
for,  say  what  you  will,  these  forms,  as  a  general 
thing,  are  rather  stupid-looking;  they  lack  bright- 
ness and  intelligence  much  more  than  they  do  mus- 
cular and  physical  vigor. 


248  SHADOWS. 

J  have  said  but  little  about  frauds.  I  am  not 
unmindful  of  them,  and  their  liability.  The  condi- 
tions of  darkness,  cabinets,  side  rooms,  and  credulity 
permit  them.  I  am  presuming,  however,  that  the 
reader  will  understand  that  I  have  been  open-eyed  in 
all  directions,  and  when  I  speak  as  positively  as  I 
do,  and  have  done  in  these  several  "shadows,"  it 
will  be  understood  that  I  have  taken  into  considera- 
tion the  many  disabilities  connected  with,  at  least, 
this  phase  of  the  manifestations.  It  seems  hardly 
worth  while  for  me  to  write  out  the  details  of  detec- 
tion ;  the  reader  must  presume  I  am  not  a  fool,  and 
if  he  cannot  presume  so,  what  1  say  any  way  will  be 
of  no  account,  and  I  am  not  writing  for  his  benefit. 

There  is  no  question  that  there  are  disadvantages 
enough  in  this  phase  of  the  materialization  of  forms 
to  make  it  peculiarly  liable  to  fraud,  notwithstanding 
the  sacredness  of  the  subject,  particularly  in  its  com- 
mercial or  business  aspect.  There  are  frauds,  also, 
where  the  medium  is  not  to  blame ;  it  may  be  on  the 
part  of  the  spirits,  and  in  the  fine  magnetic  lines  of 
attractive  and  repulsive  influences;  the  audience 
may  be,  and  unquestionably  is,  a  factor  in  the  mani- 
festation, both  in  drawing  around  like-minded  spirits, 
and  also  in  furnishing  "raw  material,"  so  to  speak, 
to  help  in  the  materialization. 

It  is  no  use,  however,  to  excuse  the  medium  for 
the  overt  act  if  caught  personating  a  spirit,  or  with 
the  paraphernalia  of  decoration ;  she  must  take  the 
consequences,  whether  audiences  or  spirits  are  to 
blame  or  not,  though  it  is  possible  for  such  an  act  to 


MATERIALIZATION.  249 

be  perpetrated,  and  the  medium  to  be  perfectly  inno- 
cent. I  never  make  this  as  an  argument  to  anyone. 
I  would  expect  to  be  laughed  at  if  I  did;  but  those 
who  know  something  of  the  dynamics  of  this  subject 
know  I  am  right. 

I  can  hardly  understand  the  motive  on  the  part  of 
spirits  for  deception  ;  the  fact,  however,  is  unques- 
tionable. I  have  known  the  personation  of  a  spirit 
by  the  medium,  where  the  latter  was  innocent  and 
wholly  unconscious,  and  the  form  was  allowed  by 
the  spirit  controlling  to  be  accepted  as  a  materializa- 
tion. I  think  a  fraud  out  of  order  always,  whether 
by  spirit  or  mortal.  A  transfiguration  is  as  wonder- 
ful a  manifestation  as  a  materialization.  Why  the 
spirits  permit  a  form  of  that  kind  to  come  forward 
and  be  received  as  an  extemporized  presence,  or  a 
materialization,  is  very  strange,  to  say  the  least,  and 
I  think  the  less  of  them  for  it.  I  feel  myself  that, 
when  I  am  a  spirit,  if  I  should  be  attracted  to  this 
business  of  extemporizing  forms,  which  is  very  doubt- 
ful, they  would  be  what  they  claimed  to  be,  or  there 
would  be  no  apparitions. 

I  think  I  have  now  said  about  enough,  if  I  have 
been  lucid,  for  anyone  who  cares  to  know  where  to 
place  me,  which  is  as  a  firm  believer  in  the  fact  of 
materialization  with  the  same  difficulty  of  identifica- 
tion as  in  the  other  phases  of  the  manifestations,  and 
that  the  fact  of  identification  in  all  phases  of  the 
manifestations  is  a  subordinate  one  to  the  main  issue, 
which  is  of  answering  Job's  question  affirmatively, — 
"  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  " 


250  SHADOWS. 

If  the  "Sage  of  Galveston"  were  alive,  he  would 
ay  here  is  a  good  place  to  stop.  Why  should  I  say 
"if  alive,"  wheii  the  chapter  on  his  return  proves 
him  so  ?  Well,  it  is  only  a  figure  of  speech.  The 
"  Sage  "  thought,  however,  may  have  been  a  whisper, 
and  if  this  were  a  newspaper  article  here  would  have 
been  my  period  in  response.  Writing  now  in  a  more 
permanent  form,  I  will  say  to  my  invisible  friend  that 
I  think  I  had  better  add  an  affirmative  illustration 
or  two  just  for  a  finish,  and  will  do  so. 

A  daughter  of  mine,  whom  the  reader  will  remem- 
ber as  Hattie,  has  come  to  me  in  materialized  form 
several  times.  Of  course  I  could  not  recognize  a  lady 
of  thirty  who  passed  out  of  sight  a  child  of  six.  This 
spirit  once  came,  called  me  "  Father,"  and  gave  her 
name  as  "Hattie,"  softly  but  audibly.  She  made  a 
sign  with  her  hands,  indicating  her  hight  when  she 
died,  or  when  I  last  saw  her ;  this  certainly  was  pretty 
good  evidence.  A  few  days  after  I  was  accidentally 
at  a  sitting  with  a  test  medium,  who  did  not  know 
that  I  had  been  at  a  materialization,  and  Hattie  came 
through  or  controlled  her;  said  she  showed  herself 
to  me  at  the  dark  circle  the  other  evening.  Both 
experiences  made  what  I  would  call  an  intellectual 
recognition,  and  the  fact  was  a  very  interesting  one. 

Some  year  or  two  after  that,  and  not  very  long  ago, 
she  came  again ;  this  time  Miss  Berry  was  thefaedium. 
As  I  sat  in  the  circle,  the  lady  sitting  next  to  me, 
whom  I  did  not  know,  but  who  was  a  medium,  said 
to  me :  *'  Have  you  a  Hattie,  a  young  lady  in  the  spirit 
world  ? "  I  said  "  Yes."  "  She  is  your  daughter, 


MATERIALIZATION.  251 

is  she  not?"  "Yes,"  said  I;  then  she  said:  "She 
has  been  standing  by  you,  and  leaning  on  you  all  the 
evening." 

In  about  half  an  hour  after  that,  the  lady  not  hav- 
ing moved  or  spoken  to  anyone,  so  this  episode  was 
private,  the  manager  of  the  circle  said :  "  Ilattie 
Wetherbee  is  here,  and  says  she  will  try  to  show  her- 
self to  her  father."  I  went  up  to  the  cabinet,  and 
very  soon  the  spirit  of  a  young  lady  appeared  and 
embraced  me,  and  retired.  I  say  spirit  because  that 
is  the  custom;  but  these  forms  have  more  of  a 
material  than  a  spiritual  aspect,  all  of  them ;  hence  I 
suppose  the  designation,  materialization.  In  a  little 
while  she  opened  the  curtain  again,  and.  putting  her 
head  close  to  mine,  whispered  to  me  saying :  "  Father, 
I  have  been  with  you  all  the  evening,"  pointing  to 
my  seat,  and  adding:  "You  knew  it,  loo,  for  1  gut 
her  to  tell  you."  I  think  this,  also,  was  a  circum- 
stantial or  intellectual  recognition,  and  I  consider  it 
an  interesting  circumstance.  I  will  add,  however, 
that  the  two  " forms"  of  what  claimed  to  be  Ilattie 
at  those  two  different  times  were  very  far  from  being 
duplicates.  They  were  not  out  of  keeping,  however, 
to  what  my  daughter  might  have  been  at  her  maturity ; 
but  one  was  six  or  eight  inches  taller,  and  every  way 
larger  than  the  other,  so  that  dissimilarity  is  a  draw- 
back to  identification,  unless  spirit  forms  are  elastic, 
which  is  not  unsupposable ;  but  as  spiritual  manifes- 
tations, with  the  circumstances,  it  seems  to  me  they 
were  perfect. 

One   more  circumstance  I  think  will  be  all  that 


252  SHADOWS. 

*'  the  invisible  Sage "  will  allow  me  to  add  to  this 
chapter.  This  was  a  very  interesting  occasion,  and 
also  was  at  the  Berry  sisters'.  The  circle  was  select 
and  special,  small  and  for  a  purpose.  I  will  not  give 
a  full  description  of  it ;  I  will  copy  from  my  record 
book  the  circumstance  that  specially  interested  me. 
Among  the  forms  that  appeared  was  the  apparition 
of  a  relative.  I  did  not  recognize  her,  so  I  asked  her 
name.  The  spirit  replied :  "  I  am  Mary  Smith." 

Mary  Smith  was  my  mother's  cousin,  who  had  been 
dead  forty  years,  and  was  a  maiden  lady  of  sixty 
when  she  passed  away.  I  remember  her  as  she  looked 
then  as  well  as  I  remember  my  mother.  She 
appeared  on  this  occasion  as  "  a  radiant  maiden  "  well 
preserved  of  middle  life,  yet  she  was  then  a  century 
old.  That  somewhat  contradicted  the  poet's  affirma- 
tion where  he  says :  — 

"  Little  of  all  we  value  here, 
Wakes  on  the  morn  of  its  hundredth  year, 
Without  both  looking  and  feeling  queer." 

Not  so  contradictory  however  upon  a  second  read- 
ing. She  looked,  as  we  trust  all  old  people  do,  in  the 
spirit  world, —  a  sort  of  youthful  maturity. 

Of  course,  I  could  not  see  anything  in  this  fine- 
looking,  well-arrayed  person  to  remind  me  of  cousin 
Mary.  In  her  life,  she  was  an  educated  lady  of 
refinement.  Her  sister  was  the  wife  of  the  venerable 
poet,  Kichard  H.  Dana,  who  died,  aged  ninety,  a  few 
years  ago.  I  mention  this  to  show  that  her  social 
surroundings  were  of  a  high  order,  and  it  may  have 


MATERIALIZATION.  253 

had  something  to  do  with  her  rather  extra-radiance 
on  this  occasion,  so  that  I  was  rather  proud  to  renew 
her  acquaintance  and  relationship  in  her  well-pre- 
served condition.  For  fear  the  reader  will  think  I 
am  straining  to  hold  on  to  this  relationship,  I  will 
say  that  after  announcing  her  name  in  a  small,  sweet, 
low-toned,  but  distinct  voice,  she  said :  "  Adeline  and 
Hattie  are  here  with  me,  and  so  is  Albert,"  and  a 
little  more  that  need  not  be  repeated.  No  one  pres- 
ent knew  the  relative  connection  of  these  names  and 
circumstances,  which  seem  to  have  been  added  for 
the  sake  of  identification,  and  that  gave  me  another 
tolerably  good  intellectual  recognition.  Well,  I 
think  I  had  better  stop  here,  even  if  abruptly,  and 
to  take  the  edge  off  of  such  may  be  Sage  abruptness, 
I  will  add  the  following  poetic  thought,  or  semi- 
information  :  — 

"  Ghosts  of  happy,  fond  illusions, 

Flitting  over  land  and  sea, 
Through  my  heart  your  viewless  footsteps 
Come  and  go  eternally." 


XXIV. 


What  is  the  good  of  it  all,  even  admitting  it  to  be  true  ? 
— The  answer  self-evident. 

Cut  bono, —  what  is  the  good  of  it?  some  say;  and 
it  is  generally  by  worldly  and  unthinking  people, 
and,  perhaps,  after  listening  to  testimony  that  they 
cannot  deny  or  explain.  It  is  a  question  I  rarely 
answer.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  worthy  of  an 
answer.  If  the  answer  to  it  is  not  at  once  self-evi- 
dent to  the  questioner  to  answer  it,  or  by  argument 
to  make  it  appear  of  value,  seems  to  me  like  casting 
pearls  before  swine.  The  remark  of  James  Russell 
Lowell  seems  to  be  applicable,  where  he  says :  "  The 
only  way  to  argue  with  an  east  wind  is  to  put  on 
your  overcoat." 

When  that  thoughtful,  scholarly  writer,  Ernest 
Renan  says  :  "  If  we  could  each  of  us  be  sure,  once  a 
year,  of  exchanging  two  words  only  with  the  loved 
and  lost,  death  would  be  no  more  death,"  he  stated 
a  truth,  and  I  do  not  think  anyone  will  doubt  it.  Is 
not,  then,  that  silly  or  thoughtless  question  answered? 
When  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  that  profound  student, 

254 


GUI  BONO?  255 

and  who  was  not  one  of  the  believers  in  a  future 
life,  or,  more  properly,  was  an  agnostic  in  his  views 
of  the  matter,  said  that,  "If  mankind  was  deprived 
of  its  belief  in  immortality,  lean  and  unsatisfactory 
as  it  is,  it  would  be  insane  from  despair,"  did  he  not 
answer  the  cut  bono?  Is  not,  then,  the  sensuous 
proof  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  of  itself,  a  boon  to 
mankind  ?  Both  of  these  affirmations  show  that  the 
human  heart  is  hungry  for  this  light. 

Is  there  not  a  reply  to  the  question  cui  bono?  in 
food  for  the  hungry,  and  is  it  not  as  essential  or 
important  to  feed  the  spirit  of  a  man  as  to  feed 
his  body?  One  who  spoke  with  authority  said: 
"Man  cannot  live  by  bread  alone."  Anyone  who 
says  cui  bono  ?  at  what  Spiritualism  proposes,  or  what 
it  practically  is,  says  in  plain  language  that  man  can 
live  by  bread  alone,  and  there  are  many  that  do  live 
so,  and,  verily,  they  will  have  their  reward. 

If  the  man  says  cui  bono?  because  he  knows  there  is 
no  future  life  beyond  this,  or  that  it  appears  so  to 
him,  and  that  we  are  knocking  where  there  is  no 
door,  then  it  is  a  waste  of  time,  and  cui  bono?  is  the 
proper  question  to  ask ;  but  that  has  no  bearing  on  the 
subject.  Modern  Spiritualism  makes  a  positive  state- 
ment. It  says  there  are  intelligent  phenomena  that 
claim  to  be  the  voice  of  the  departed ;  and  when  it 
cannot  be  denied  or  accounted  for  by  the  party,  and 
he  says  cui  bono?  the  question  is  an  absurd  one,  for 
if  there  is  no  such  future,  of  course  there  is  no  good 
to  come  from  it.  The  asking  of  the  question,  then, 
is  begging  it  negatively. 


256  SHADOWS. 

Modern  Spiritualism,  in  its  basic  fact,  is  either 
true  or  it  is  false.  If  true,  as  we  have  said,  the  bare 
fact  answers  the  question  of  cui  bono  ?  If  it  is  false, 
the  question  is  superfluous. 

There  is  something  in  human  life  that  is  of  essen- 
tial value  besides  "bread  and  butter," — that  is, 
besides  health,  wealth,  popularity,  or  position.  Prof. 
Tyndall  deals  with  values,  and  in  a  scientific  man- 
ner. He  says :  "  The  circle  of  human  nature,  then, 
is  not  complete  without  the  arc  of  feeling  and  emo- 
tion. The  lilies  of  the  field  have  a  value  for  us  beyond 
their  botanical  ones,  —  a  certain  lightening  of  the 
heart  accompanies  the  declaration  that  'Solomon  in 
all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.'  The 
sound  of  the  village  bell  which  comes  mellowed  from 
the  valley  to  the  traveler  upon  the  hill  has  a  value 
beyond  its  acoustical  one.  The  starry  heavens,  as 
you  know,  had  for  Immanuel  Kant  a  value  beyond 
their  astronomical  one.  Round  about  the  intellect 
sweeps  the  horizon  of  the  emotions  from  which  all 
our  noblest  impulses  are  derived.  I  think  it  very 
desirable  to  keep  this  horizon  open ;  not  to  permit 
either  priest  or  philosopher  to  draw  down  his  shutters 
between  you  and  it." 

Anyone  who  asks  the  question  :  "What  is  the  good 
of  it? "  in  reference  to  the  claim  of  modern  Spiritual- 
ism, has  his  shutters  so  thoroughly  drawn  down  that 
he  does  not  know  what  light  is ;  he  is  an  eyeless  fish 
in  the  Mammoth  Cave  f^  materialism. 

The  editor  of  the  Scientific  American,  who  does 
not  believe  at  all  in  modern  Spiritualism,  but,  on  the 


cm  BONO?  257 

contrary  opposes  it,  does  not  say  cui  lono?  he  pays 
this  tribute  to  it,  with  an  "if."  "If  it  be  true,"  he 
says,  "such  words  as  vast,  profound,  tremendous 
would  have  to  be  strengthened  a  thousand-fold  to  be 
fitted  to  express  its  importance.  If  true,  it  will 
become  the  one  great  event  in  the  world's  history. 
It  will  give  an  imperishable  luster  of  glory  to  the 
nineteenth  century."  These  are  my  sentiments  also, 
without  any  "if." 

Here  we  all  are  in  this  world,  faith  gone  into  eclipse, 
revelation  weakening  in  its  foundations,  the  intui- 
tions of  the  soul  following  faith  into  its  eclipse, 
because  the  records  of  holy  writ  do  not  rest  on  the 
bed  rock, —  doubt  and  agnosticism  intruding  into  the 
human  mind.  Now  comes  some  intelligent  phe- 
nomena into  the  world  of  human  thought  that,  if 
true,  throws  a  luster  of  truth  on  the  ancient  records, 
or  at  least  proves  a  spiritual  source  for  what  is  called 
revelation,  and  reproduces  the  fore- world  of  confi- 
dence again;  and,  if  it  does  so,  who  asks  the  question, 
cui  bono? — certainly  no  one  but  a  thoughtless  igno- 
ramus. 

Epes  Sargent,  speaking  of  matters  bearing  on  this 
point,  says:  "This  universe,  you  may  be  sure,  is  not 
an  infinite  contrivance  for  the  production  and  swift 
extinction  of  sentient,  loving,  intelligent  life.  It  is 
not  a  stupendous  vestibule  to  a  charnel  house,  where 
affection,  friendship,  science,  and  art  find  congenial 
and  progressive  recipients  for  a  few  fleeting  moments, 
and  man  is  admitted  to  a  glimpse  of  a  possible  hap- 
piness and  growth,  and  then  plunged  into  the  black- 


258  SHADOWS. 

ness  of  annihilation,  —  a  world  where  life  and  mind 
are  given  only  to  be  withdrawn,  as  if  in  mockery, 
and  truth  and  goodness  are  as  evanescent  as  falsehood 
and  evil." 

Is  not  the  "fact"  an  important  one,  if  it  settles 
affirmatively  that  death  and  the  grave  is  not  the  end 
of  a  man's  life ;  that  the  man  survives  death,  and  has 
a  continued  or  perpetual  conscious  life  beyond  it? 
Does  anyone  question  the  value  or  cui  bono?  of  that 
fact  because,  in  his  estimation,  it  is  not  yet  proved 
or  provable?  It  does  not  alter  the  fact  of  the  claim 
that  it  makes.  Can  anything  be  conceived  that  is  of 
more  value  to  the  people  of  this  world,  and  more 
conducive  to  their  well-being  and  moral  worth  than 
to  know  beyond  a  peradventure  that  our  fathers, 
mothers,  brothers,  sisters,  friends,  who  are  the  lost 
stars  in  our  several  social  circles,  are  still  alive,  con- 
scious of  our  in-comings  and  our  out-goings,  and,  as 
of  old,  having  a  real  though  invisible  supervision  over 
us?  If  anyone  does  not  see  the  matter  in  this  light, 
then  cui  bono?  is  their  proper  query,  to  which  I  make 
no  reply  except  to  say,  in  the  language  of  Scripture, 
that  I  have  no  pearls  to  cast  away. 


XXV. 

PREVISION. 

Containing  some  thoughts  on  prophecy,  critical  and 
illustrative. 

The  following  article  was  written  for  and  printed 
in  a  magazine  ;  the  inspiring  motive  was  the  words : 
"Will  he  enlighten  us?  "  Some  one,  somewhere,  had 
criticised  me  on  my  ideas  on  the  subject  of  prophecy. 
The  only  memorandum  I  have  now  to  refresh  my 
memory  reads  thus :  "Why  should  Brother  Wether- 
bee  not  hope  for  the  time  to  come  when  a  more  intel- 
ligent method  obtains  of  forecasting  future  events? 
He  sees  wisdom  in  our  ignorance  of  events  to  occur 
in  the  future;  we  do  not.  Will  he  enlighten  us?" 
This  memorandum  does  not  bring  into  my  mind  the 
circumstances  that  called  for  this  question,  and  led 
me  to  write  the  article  referred  to.  Reading  it  over 
lately,  I  thought  it,  or  at  least  some  of  it,  was  worth 
preservation ;  so,  it  being  short,  I  will  copy  it,  as 
follows :  — 

As  the  four  words,  "Will  he  enlighten  us  ?  "  linger 
in  my  mind  as  an  inspiring  impulse,  the  lines  of 
Emerson  arise  in  my  memory.  It  is  an  orphic  but 

260 


260  SHADOWS. 

characteristic  expression  of  a  rather  weird  flavor. 
There  is  no  remarkable  definiteness  in  the  thought, 
and  yet  it  seems  to  carry  a  suggestive  undertone 
which  hints  at  a  connection  between  prevision  and 
"  the  thing  so  signified."  I  hardly  think  any  words 
of  mine  will  bring  the  poet's  idea  into  more  bold 
relief,  and  the  best  thing  I  can  do  is  to  quote  it,  and 
then  leave  it :  — 

"Delicate  omens  traced  in  air 
To  the  lone  bard  true  witness  bear; 
Birds  with  auguries  on  their  wings 
Chanted  undeceiving  things 
Him  to  beckon,  him  to  warn; 
Well  might  then  the  poet  scorn 
To  learn  of  scribe  or  courier 
Hints  writ  in  vaster  character; 
And  on  his  mind,  at  dawn  of  day, 
Soft  shadows  of  the  evening  lay ; 
For  the  prevision  is  allied 
Unto  the  thing  so  signified : 
Or  say,  the  foresight  that  awaits 
Is  the  same  genius  that  creates." 

The  simple  presentation  of  these  lines  will  serve 
the  purpose  of  concentrating  my  thought,  and  I  hope 
they  will  the  reader's  also ;  if  not,  read  the  quota- 
tion slowly  and  thoughtfully  over  again  ;  it  will  bear 
study. 

It  is  possible  the  time  may  corne  when  the  pedes- 
tal of  prophecy  will  be  a  firm  and  reliable  one,  when 
prevision  may  become  an  exact  science  like  astron- 
omy, a  matter  of  mathematics  to  which  I  added  in 
my  communication,  "  I  hope  not ;  I  have  no  welcome 
for  it."  I  still  think  there  is  wisdom  in  letting 


PREVISION.  261 

future  suns  shine  on  future  clays  without  anticipat- 
ing future  sunshine  or  cloud  by  any  system  of  dis- 
count. Still,  I  have  a  hospitable,  or  open  eye,  for 
truth  and  knowledge.  I  follow  wherever  truth  leads. 
1  presume  I  have  the  same  feeling  regarding  the  sub- 
ject of  prevision,  should  it  become  a  matter  of  scien- 
tific or  mathematical  exactness,  like  the  calculation 
of  an  eclipse,  or  the  transit  of  a  planet  across  the 
sun's  disk,  that,  perhaps,  Jesus  may  have  had  when 
he  said :  "  Father,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me ;  never- 
theless, not  my  will  but  thine  be  done,"  feeling  sure 
it  will  be  done  any  way. 

Quoting  this  remark  from  the  Bible  leads  me  to 
think  that  Jesus  may  have  been  a  mind-reader  as 
well  as  intuitive  and  prophetic,  and,  perhaps,  sensed 
the  future  feeling  in  this  way ;  he  may,  perhaps,  have 
sensed  the  collective  and  unspoken  thought  or  senti- 
ment of  the  multitude,  and  may  thus  have  known 
something  of  his  painful  and  mortifying  exit,  or  that 
it  was  to  be  inevitable,  and  so  said  to  himself  in  his 
grief:  "I  hope  not;  I  have  no  desire  for  it;"  or, 
what  amounts  to  the  same  thing, —  the  letter  of  the 
record, —  "let  this  cup  pass  from  me." 

A  distinguished  doctor  and  scientific  man  said  in 
my  hearing  once  that  "  If  mankind  knew  each  one 
the  date  when  their  own  individual  life  was  to  end, 
—  that  is,  his  exit,  as  definite  in  the  future  as  the 
coming  of  one's  birthday,  or  of  Christmas, —  more 
than  half  of  mankind  would  go  crazy."  It  was  the 
matter  of  death  that  I  had  in  my  mind  in  what  I  said 
in  the  article  to  which  I  referred.  Hence  the  knowl- 


262  SHADOWS. 

edge  would  not  be  wisdom,  even  if  it  should  ever  be 
truth.  It  seems  to  me  the  spirit  world  sees  it  in  that 
light ;  and  though  I  do  not  think  it  has  established 
itself  very  solidly  on  its  prophetic  power,  but  seeing 
a  disposition  on  the  part  of  mortals  who  believe  in 
spirit  messages  to  place  some  confidence  in  their  pre- 
dictions, the  spirits  hesitate  in  expressing  their  opin- 
ion on  the  mortuary  point. 

Renan,  who  wrote  the  "  Life  of  Christ,"  who  had 
some  belief  in  the  conscious  existence  of  the  departed, 
said:  "If  each  of  us  could  once  a  year  be  permitted 
to  exchange  but  two  words  with  the  loved  and  the 
lost,  death  would  be  no  more  death  "  I  find  that  the 
waves  of  new  truth  which  are  ever  rolling  in,  and 
forever  will  be,  come  into  current  knowledge  about 
the  time  the  race  is  ready  for  them. 

If  what  Renan,  the  French  scholar  says,  is  true, 
and  what  modern  Spiritualism  is  beginning  to  make 
a  fact,  and  is  certainly  softening  down  death's  terrors 
from  a  grim  messenger  to  an  angelic  one,  the  pre- 
vision of  life's  exit  may  not  alwa}rs  be  as  unwelcome 
as  it  is  now  to  the  average  of  mankind.  When  it 
will  not  be  the  fact,  as  that  doctor  said,  that  half  of 
mankind  would  go  crazy  if  they  knew  as  definitely 
to  a  day  and  hour  their  demise,  as  they  know  the  day 
and  hour  of  some  coming  birthday  or  anniversary, 
there  may  be  such  a  change  that  people  will  rejoice 
at  such  a  prevision,  if  the  event  was  near,  as  they 
would  to  an  appointment  to  some  desirable  foreign 
mission,  or  a  promotion. 

This  will,  perhaps,  explain   my  remarks   on   the 


PKEVISION.  2G3 

possible  future  better  or  more  scientific  method  than 
now  obtains.  I  was  and  am  speaking  of  the  matter 
in  the  light  of  today,  and,  although  I  had  human  life 
mainly  in  my  mind,  the  unwisdom  of  which  I  then 
spoke,  applies  to  future  events  generally. 

I  think,  however,  there  is  a  psychic  power  or  intel- 
ligence of  an  emotional  or  intuitive  character  mani- 
fested even  in  the  flux  of  human  and  current  affairs 
that  seems  to  sense  the  future.  Occasionally  that 
knowledge  leaks  into  mundane  minds  definitely.  It 
comes  sometimes  in  such  a  detailed  manner  that  we 
know  it  is  not  accidental,  or  coincident,  or  in  any 
sense  a  guess,  that  it  is  actually  a  prevision  (instances 
in  proof  of  this  fact  will  be  found  in  some  of  the 
chapters  of  this  book,  so  need  not  be  repeated  here). 

Among  many  instances  in  proof  of  what  1  say,  I 
will  relate  one.  My  mother's  older  sister,  who  died 
a  spinster  a  few  years  ago  at  the  age  of  85,  was  a  very 
singular  woman, —  very  mediumistic,  sensitive^  and 
nervous.  A  history  of  her  singularities  would  be 
quite  illustrative  of  this  subject,  only  her  premoni- 
tions often  lacked  the  dignity  and  sublimity  that 
celestial  influences  ought  to  carry ;  but,  letting  all 
that  rest,  she  came  down  stairs  one  morning  in  a  very 
pensive  state  of  mind, —  noticeably  so  ;  but  seemed 
disinclined  to  tell  her  grief. 

She  was  at  this  time  a  woman  of  about  half  a  cen- 
tury old,  and  in  tolerably  good  health,  as  her  length 
of  life  afterwards  indicated.  Being  alone  with  her 
during  a  part  of  the  day,  and  manifesting  some  curi- 
osity, she  explained  her  sadness.  She  said  she  had 


264  SHADOWS. 

had  a  singular  dream.  She  was  looking  out  of  the 
front  window;  and,  instead  of  seeing  Hancock  Street, 
as  she  ought  to,  she  saw  nothing  but  an  extensive 
grave-yard,  stones,  monuments,  here  and  there  and 
everywhere.  On  some  were  dead  people's  names 
written,  and  on  some  living  people's  names.  Every 
name  she  saw  was  a  relative  or  an  ancestor,  or  some 
friend  with  whom  she  was  acquainted. 

The  greater  number  of  these  names  seemed  to 
be  of  those  still  living.  On  each  stone,  under  the 
name,  was  the  year  1806,  or  1820,  or  1860,  or  1875,  or 
whatever  it  might  be  (this  dream  occurred  between 
1830  and  1840 ;  I  think  about  1833).  She  saw  quite 
distinctly  twelve  grave-stones  in  a  row,  with  the 
names  of  her  eleven  brothers  and  sisters,  and  her 
own,  on  them,  arranged  in  the  order  of  their  birth, 
and  the  year  of  their  death  on  each.  This  was  the 
conspicuous  feature  of  this  cemetery,  which,  when 
observed,  became  a  matter  of  interest,  and  the  other 
part  of  the  dreamy  tableau  began  to  grow  dim,  and 
recede,  and  soon  formed  no  part  of  the  picture,  only 
the  twelve  stones  with  her  brothers'  and  sisters' 
names  remaining,  and  they  seemed  quite  conspicuous 
and  near.  Soon  that  part  vanished,  and  she  awoke, 
but  she  was  able  to  remember  the  years  only  of  five 
of  them, —  two  brothers  and  a  sister,  who  had  died, 
and  two  living  sisters  ;  and  the  two  sisters  did  die  in 
the  years  that  were  on  the  stones  named  for  them  in 
the  dream. 

The  inference  is  that  if  she  could  have  remembered 
the  years  of  death  mentioned  on  the  other  seven 


PREVISION.  265 

grave-stones,  she  would  have  had  a  prevision  of  the 
year  of  death  of  all  the  members  of  her  family.  For 
some  wise  purpose,  the  veil  of  forgetf  ulness  was  drawn 
over  them.  Certainly,  in  that  dream  there  was  proved 
that  somehow  or  somewhere  there  is  the  principle 
of  prophecy.  With  this,  and  other  instances  in  my 
own,  as  well  as  the  world's,  history,  it  shows  what  is 
possible,  and  yet  I  want  none  of  it.  I  feel  that  I  am 
happier  without  it.  I  do  not  want  to  discount  the 
future  joy  or  sorrow, —  no  objection  to  the  joy,  but 
as  prevision  includes  both,  I  prefer  the  curtain  to 
remain  unlifted. 

I  do  not  think  spirits  are  prophets  any  more  than 
men  are  prophets ;  but  as  there  is  a  great  difference 
in  the  latter  in  reference  to  prevision,  so  there  are 
differences  in  the  former.  The  outlook  of  the  former 
may  be  and  is  better  than  ours,  and  so  may  be,  per- 
haps, approximately  prophetic. 

I  have  the  idea  that  all  prevision  is  mathematical. 
The  future  is  the  product  of  the  past.  Given  the 
factors,  the  unknown  quantity  can  be  made  manifest, 
and  thus  the  future  is  solved.  I  do  not  mean  that 
the  future  is  figured  out  literally ;  but  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  prevision  is  mathematical.  There  have  been 
geniuses  who,  on  giving  them  an  intricate  sum,  requir- 
ing in  the  solution  necessarily  a  great  complication 
of  figures,  yet  the  sum  total  or  the  answer  is  ready 
on  the  instant.  The  observer,  a  man  of  figures,  goes 
through  the  operation,  and  with  much  calculation 
finds  the  genius's  instantaneous  answer  correct  every 


266  SHADOWS. 

time,  proving  a  royal  road  to  exist,  but  which  cannot 
be  converted  into  a  thoroughfare. 

By  some  such  road  as  this  the  future  may  be  known 
to  angelic  minds,  or  minds  in  the  supernal ;  and,  as  I 
have  said,  sometimes  this  prophetic  knowledge  finds 
expression  through  human  souls ;  but  as  yet  prophecy 
or, prevision  is  not  a  thoroughfare  even  for  spirits 
generally;  at  least  so  it  seems  to  me,  and  I  think  it 
best  that  it  is  so. 

There  may  be  spirits  of  a  high  order  with  pro- 
phetic insight,  and  to  whom  coming  events  are  ever 
present ;  and  thus  the  world  and  its  environment, 
with  its  inhabitants,  spirits,  and  mortals,  is  run  on  an 
intelligent  basis;  and  though  most  of  the  previsions 
that  leak  into  this  mundane  sphere  are  through 
dreams,  premonitions,  nightmares,  epileptic  or  shat- 
tered organisms,  they  at  least  show  that  there  is  pres- 
cient and  prophetic  power  in  the  universe,  botli 
beyond  mortal  and  ordinary  spiritual  reach. 

Does  not  the  Concord  philosopher,  from  whom  we 
have  quoted,  give  us  an  inkling  of  the  idea  in  the 
lines  herein  quoted,  arid  also  where  he  says :  "  There 
is  a  crack  in  everything  that  God  has  made,  and  the 
light  of  heaven  shines  through  the  crevice"?  I  feel 
somewhat  indebted  to  these  "cracks"  in  human 
nature,  and  yet  it  is  a  blessed  thing  to  be  whole. 


XXVI. 

DETACHED   THOUGHTS. 

Conclusions  on  several  interesting  and  important 
points. 

I.  There  is  no  question  of  the  fact  with  me  that  we 
have  invisibly  around  us  an  environment  composed 
of  spirits,  who  have  once  been  mortals  on  earth,  and 
that  they  are  still  interested  in  us.  I  hardly  need  to 
say  this  onty  as  a  summing-up,  for  the  reader,  if 
he  has  got  as  far  as  this,  will  have  inferred  as  much 
from  the  foregoing  fragments  of  my  experience.  I 
know  of  no  intelligence,  and  can  conceive  of  none, 
that  does  not  proceed  from  a  human  organization. 
I  do  not  mean  the  materialistic  idea,  that  the  mind 
is  the  result  of  the  human  organization,  for  I  have 
learned  to  look  upon  the  human  organization,  in  a 
logical  sense,  as  the  product  of  the  human  spirit ; 
but  that,  in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  the  genesis  of 
intelligence  is  human.  The  Great  First  Cause  is  not 
intelligent  in  the  sense  we  usually  define  the  idea, 
and  that  any  oral  or  written  intelligence  is  human 
and  not  divine  in  its  origin. 

In  a  word,  that  Moses  or  some  ancient  wise  man, 

207 


268  SHADOWS. 

or  the  departed  spirit  of  some  man,  wrote  the  Deca- 
logue, and  it  was  not  by  the  finger  of  God,  directly 
or  indirectly,  so  that  the  work  was  not  superhuman 
in  any  sense,  unless  one  considers  a  spirit  super- 
human, which  I  do  not ;  neither  did  the  angel  whom 
St.  John  was  going  to  worship  consider  himself 
superhuman,  for  he  said  so,  as  recorded  in  the  book 
of  Revelations.  The  phenomena  of  modern  Spirit- 
ualism suggests  how  this  might  have  been  done,  and 
Moses  have  been  honest ;  and  in  the  suggestion  how 
in  that  age  there  might  have  been  good  reasons  for 
crediting  it  to  Divinity  to  add  to  its  authority.  I 
think  it  possible  that  the  Decalogue  was  written  by 
a  spirit,  and,  if  so,  this  invisible  intelligence  was 
human,  for  spirits  are  human  beings  once  mortal, 
now  called^  immortals. 

My  conclusion  is  supplemented  by  the  fact  that 
the  testimony  of  this  invisible  intelligence  itself  is 
that  it  is  human.  In  every  instance,  from  1848  to 
date,  no  matter  what  the  nature  or  character  of  the 
demonstration,  comes  the  positive  assurance  that 
"  I  am  thy  brother  man,  and  once  a  dweller  like  you 
upon  the  earth."  This  bottom  fact,  the  basis  of 
modern  Spiritualism,  as  a  statement,  is  as  certain  as 
the  fact  that  there  is  such  an  ism  current  in  the 
world.  Identification  of  a  spirit  is  difficult,  and 
often  a  questionable  matter,  not  so  the  fact  that  the 
invisible  communicator  is  a  spirit. 

II.  The  estimate  put  by  the  great  and  good 
spirits  on  accumulated  wealth,  which  is  such  an  item 


DETACHED  THOUGHTS.  269 

of  desire  here,  is  a  low-grade  one.  The  most  disap- 
pointed man  who  passes  over  the  river  of  death  is 
the  man  of  wealth, — starting  from  this  side  as  a  man 
of  consequence,  and  becoming  at  once  a  nobody  in 
the  new  relation.  This  is  not  always  so,  and  need 
not  be  the  case,  but  such  is  the  general  fact.  I  do 
not  expect,  by  saying  this,  to  reduce  the  value  or  the 
desire,  or  the  love  of,  or  the  acquisition  of,  wealth.  I 
do  not  even  expect  to  reform  myself.  I  only  know 
there  is  danger  in  it  that  the  many  do  not  escape. 
Escape,  possibly,  may  be  my  compensation  for  the 
lack  of  it. 

I  know,  also,  when  not  an  idol,  it  is  one  of  the 
most  useful  adjuncts  to  a  man's  condition ;  or,  as 
Burns  says :  — 

"  Not  for  to  hide  it  in  a  hedge, 
Nor  for  a  train  attendant ; 
But  for  the  glorious  privilege 
Of  being  independent ! " 

I  am  aware  that  but  for  wealth  Washington  would 
never  have  been  the  Father  of  his  Country,  nor  Theo- 
dore Parker  have  been  the  iconoclast  he  was  if  pen- 
ury "•  had  chilled  the  genial  current  of  his  soul,"  or 
Wendell  Phillips  have  had  the  self-denial  to  dodge 
ambition  for  truth's  sake  but  for  his  bank  account; 
still  the  words  of  Pollock  fit  most  human  cases,  only 
substitute  the  word  wealth  for  gold  in  the  passage 
quoted :  — 

"Gold, many  hunted,  sweat,  and  bled  for  gold; 
Waked  all  the  night  and  labored  all  the  day. 
And  what  was  this  allurement,  dost  thou  ask? 


270  SHADOWS. 

A  dust  dug  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth, 

Which,  being  cast  into  the  fire,  came  out 

A  shining  thing  that  fools  admired,  and  called 

A  god ;  and  in  devout  and  humble  plight 

Before  it  kneeled,  the  greater  to  the  less ; 

And  at  its  altar  sacrificed  ease,  peace, 

Truth,  faith,  integrity,  good  conscience,  friends, 

Love,  charity,  benevolence,  and  all 

The  sweet  and  tender  sympathies  of  life." 

Wealth,  I  am  aware,  is  a  great  means  of  civiliza- 
tion. The  love  of  it,  and  the  pursuit  of  it,  has  dis- 
tanced missionary  work  as  a  civHizer.  A  nation 
must  have  accumulated  wealth  before  it  can  have 
culture,  and,  for  efficiency,  it  must  be  concentrated 
in  a  minority,  not  diffused.  We  can  say  of  it  as  the 
ancients  said  of  offences:  "It  must  needs  be  that 
wealth  comes,  but  woe  unto  him  by  whom  it 
comes." 

I  do  not  mean  that  elevation  of  soul,  heart,  love, 
and  sympathy  abound  with  the  poor,  and  all  the  sel- 
fishness with  the  rich.  There  is  as  much  meanness, 
often  more,  in  the  idolatry  of  wealth  as  in  its  posses- 
sion. There  are  too  many  exceptions  to  the  rule  for 
the  wealthy  class  to  have  the  monopoly  of  selfishness, 
yet  selfishness  is  one  of  the  prime  factors  in  its  pro- 
duction ;  still,  it  may  almost  be  said  that  the  posses- 
sion as  well  as  the  love  of  wealth  is  the  root  of  all 
evil, —  that  is,  it  is  dangerous  to  the  spirit;  and  mod- 
ern Spiritualism,  by  its  prevision  of  the  next  life, 
will  yet  teach  mankind  to  a  practical  point  that  fact, 
so  that  men  will  not  die  mere  money-bags ;  they  will 
grow  under  its  teachings  centrifugal  and  diffusive, 


DETACHED   THOUGHTS.  271 

gradually  investing  their  surplus  money,  not  for  its 
semi-annual  dividends,  but  for  its  value  in  the  next 
world.  Invested  here,  but  becoming  "  Summer-Lund 
Securities  "  there. 

III.  I  set  a  high  value  on  phenomenal  Spiritual- 
ism, or  the  spiritual  manifestations.  They  ma}'  be 
trifles  in  themselves,  but  not  trifles  in  their  con- 
nection with  unseen  intelligences.  They  are  the 
accented  features  of  the  subject.  Practically,  phe- 
nomenal Spiritualism  is  the  whole  of  modern  Spiritu- 
alism, or  its  only  distinguishing  feature.  Modern  Spir- 
itualism denned  means  sensuous  proof  that  man 
survives  death  and  communicates  with  his  fellow-men 
who  are  still  living  in  the  form. 

Other  isms  claim  a  faith  in  a  future  life,  more  or 
less  vague,  as  a  sentiment,  a  hope,  or  a  belief.  Some 
have  the  idea  intuitively ;  but  most  people  rest  on 
Bible  revelation,  or  the  education  growing  out  of  it. 
I  think  that  both  the  intuitional  and  the  vague  idea 
have  been  greatly  strengthened  even  into  rational 
thought  in  church  teachings  by  the  spreading  of 
modern  Spiritualism,  and  without  recognizing  the 
source  of  the  rationalizing  influence.  This  is  more 
noticeable  at  funeral  ceremonies  than  anywhere  else. 

It  is  wholly  the  phenomena  that  make  the  senti- 
ment, or  hope,  or  belief  a  matter  of  fact.  Intuitive 
and  hopeful  people  take  comfort,  or  try  to  in  an  emer- 
gency, in  the  expressions  of  holy  writ,  such  as  these, 
for  instance:  "Iain  the  resurrection  and  the  life ;" 
"  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also,"  and  other  similar 


272  SHADOWS. 

hopeful  affirmations.  Practical,  or  matter-of-fact  men, 
which  class  includes  most  men  of  this  age,  say  or  feel 
otherwise,  and  point  to  "  Rachel,  mourning  for  her 
children,  and  refusing  to  be  comforted  because  they 
are  not,"  and  say  there  is  the  fact ;  no  glittering  gen- 
eralities can  dry  those  tears,  and  everybody  outside 
of  Spiritualism  knows  that  it  is  true. 

There  are  some  who  consider  phenomenal  Spirit- 
ualism as  light  and  trivial,  and  would  consign  it  to  a 
back  seat,  and  make  more  prominent  the  ethical 
teachings  of  the  subject.  I  am  not  one  of  such.  I 
have  been  more  deeply  moved  by  a  few  ultra  mortal 
raps  than  by  any  incarnated  eloquence  ever  uttered. 
Not  that  I  love  education  and  progress  less, — far  from 
that,  —  but  I  like  the  phenomena  more,  because  they, 
and  they  alone,  to  me  have  extended  life  and  progress 
beyond  the  grave  by  their  sensuous  evidence.  Shut 
the  door  on  the  phenomena,  and  the  "  gates  "  are  not 
"  ajar,"  —  shut  that  door,  and  you  shut  out  the  light 
of  modern  Spiritualism.  If  you  make  the  subject,  as 
it  would  be  then,  wholly  ethical,  it  would  be  but  one 
ism  more,  and  be  hardly  a  modification  or  an  improve- 
ment upon  current  liberal  religious  thought ;  it  would 
lack  even  the  culture  that  has  grown  up  in  and 
around  the  earlier  established  orders  of  religious 
belief. 

I  am  not  forgetting  inspiration,  nor  the  influences 
that  have  almost  suggested  a  royal  road  to  eloquent 
knowledge.  Without  the  phenomena  these  high- 
toned  moments  could  hardly  be  claimed  as  spiritual 
ministrations  in  the  modern  sense;  but  the  phenomena, 


DETACHED   THOUGHTS.  273 

admitted  and  recognized,  then  these  inspirational 
efforts  become  a  part  of  the  general  whole  as  one  of 
the  phases  of  the  spiritual  manifestations.  Such 
inspirations  and  iniluences  are  as  often  seen  in  the 
walks  of  religious  life  as  they  are  in  the  walks  of 
Spiritualism.  The  Spiritualist  knows  from  his  expe- 
rience that  a  law  exists  for  it,  and  the  light  shines 
through  the  thin  places  or  cracks  in  the  curtain 
between  the  two  worlds  whether  the  thin  places  or 
the  cracks  know  it  or  not. 

IV.  Spirits,  I  think,  have  a  way  of  reaching  us 
directly.  1  think  the  influences  of  our  own  spirit 
friends  are  more  reliably  from  them  when  they  come 
directly  to  us  than  when  they  come  through  a  third 
party.  I  am  getting  to  think  that  one's  own  impres- 
sions are  as  liable  to  be  spiritual  impressions  as  to  be 
our  own  impressions.  I  have  no  doubt  that  spirits 
near  us  by  love,  relationship,  or  affinity  reach  our 
sensorium  as  readily  as  we  do  ourselves  in  our  nor- 
mal genesis  of  thought. 

Science,  as  Dr.  Storrs  says,  has  not  bridged  the 
chasm  between  molecular  action  and  human  thought, 
and  neither  have  we  ourselves,  nor  even  individually 
for  ourselves,  bridged  it.  We  know,  if  our  attention 
has  been  called  to  it,  and  have  noticed  the  process 
that  our  emotions  of  affection  and  our  intuitions 
seem  to  have  a  -deeper  root  in  our  consciousness  or 
our  being  than  our  intellect  has.  We  examine  our 
thoughts,  the  product  of  our  mind,  as  a  something  a 
little  outside  of  ourselves,  as  it  were,  semi-objectively, 


274  SHADOWS. 

—  not  so  our  emotions  or  intuitions.  I  have  an  idea 
that  spirits  en  rapport  with  us  have  their  avenue  of 
communication  in  that  deeper  department  of  our 
being,  and  with  us  know  and  read  our  train  or  flow 
of  thought  that  we  call  our  intellectual  life. 

We  do  not  know  the  source  of  sudden  thoughts 
or  ideas  that  seem  to  bolt  into  our  minds ;  they  may 
be  self-induced,  they  ma}'-  sprout  into  consciousness 
spontaneously,  and  they  may  be  the  influences  or 
silent  whisperings  of  the  spirits.  It  is  difficult  to 
tell  in  the  mental  dynamics  of  our  being  what  is  our 
own,  and  what  is  from  the  "  divinity  that  shapes  our 
ends"  or  our  own  thoughts.  This  is  a  very  apt 
expression  for  what  is  now  known  as  "  spiritual  influ- 
ences," and  leads  us  to  think  that  Shakespeare  was 
a  medium,  and  very  sensitive  to  the  influences  of  the 
spirit  world.  Certainly  Shakespeare,  the  man,  and 
Shakespeare,  the  genius,  were  very  different  people, 
and  impressed  people  differently,  or  we  would  today 
have  known  as  much  of  him  as  we  do  of  his  contem- 
porary, Francis  Bacon. 

V.  A  bright  young  spirit,  very  mature,  however, 
in  wisdom,  gave  a  message, — it  may  have  been  alle- 
gorical, probably  was.  I  will  try  and  put  it  briefly 
into  an  intelligible  form,  thus  :  "  I  love  my  medium, 
and  she  wants  some  dollars  for  her  uses,  and  I  want 
some  dollars,  too,  for  myself."  He  got  the  dollars, 
no  matter  how;  here  is  what  he,  the  spirit,  says:  "I 
tried  various  ways  for  the  possession  of  what  I  wanted ; 
I  offered  my  dollars  in  exchange,  but  no  spirit  wanted 


DETACHED  THOUGHTS.  275 

them.  They  wanted  love^  truth,  sympathy,  wisdom, 
and  for  any  of  these  they  had  returns  to  make  of 
what  I  wanted ;  but  dollars  nobody  wanted,  and,  as 
you  mortals  would  say,  I  have,  in  these  dollars,  an 
elephant  on  my  hands,  and  I  do  not  know  what  to 
do  with  it  or  them."  This  interview  was  quite  inter- 
esting; I  have  tried  to  give  the  substance  of  it  in 
these  few  words.  It  suggested  some  ideas  on  the 
subject  of  wealth  from  a  spirit's  standpoint.  I  will 
try  to  present  my  ideas,  using  that  abridged  message 
as  an  influence. 

Many  people  struggling  under  difficulties,  and 
against  odds,  wonder  why  the  spirits  who  loved  them, 
and  aided  them  when  in  the  form,  do  not  do  so  now 
when  out  of  the  form.  It  certainly  would  be  an 
easier  thing  to  do,  it  would  seem,  than  it  is  to  materi- 
alize a  form,  as  they  often  do.  Spirits  certainly  take 
an  interest  in  us,  and  would  naturally,  one  would 
think,  be  happy  or  unhappy,  as  we  are  happy  or 
unhappy.  They  must  be  very  much  changed,  funda- 
mentally, if  they  are  not.  1  am  very  sure,  did  they 
not  see  some  "  glorious  beaming  star  too  far  over  yon 
mountain's  hight "  for  mortal  vision,  they  would  be. 
It  is  very  evident  that  the  soft  and  wealthy  con- 
ditions of  this  life  do  not  come  to  the  most  deserv- 
ing ;  rather  the  reverse,  it  would  seem  to  me.  Strip 
from  the  wealthy  their  accumulations,  they  would 
hardly  hold  their  own  by  the  side  of  those  more  or 
less  stripped  by  the  chances  and  circumstances  of 
life,  as  lovable,  sympathetic  people.  When  they  are 
thus  stripped,  as  all  will  be  in  the  undress  of  the 


276  SHADOWS. 

spirit,  when  this  "  mortal  coil  is  shuffled  off,"  there 
will  be  a  regrading  of  souls,  and  very  different  from 
the  current  one  of  earthly  life.  It  will  not  be  sur- 
prising then  if  many  of  the  first  will  be  last,  and 
many  of  the  last  will  be  first, —  many  a  millionaire 
be  a  street-sweeper,  and  many  a  man  of  mean  estate 
here  will  be  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen  there. 

I  think  in  a  world  where  wealth  is  goodness,  spirit- 
uality, thought,  wisdom,  and  the  like,  that  the  deni- 
zens of  it  in  reaching  their  friends,  who  are  still  in 
the  form,  have  lost  their  estimate  of  our  wealth  that 
is  so  appreciated  here  on  earth,  and  of  no  value  there. 
We  who  are  adults  have  seen  children  play  with 
marbles  with  all  the  earnestness  of  business  life,  as  if 
marbles  for  the  time  being  was  their  all  in  all,  happy 
in  possession,  quarreling  even  for  their  accumula- 
tion ;  and  we  looking  on  can  hardly  realize  the  value 
of  what  they  are  aiming  at  and  making  such  a  fuss 
about,  except  by  remembering  we  were  all  children 
once,  and  had  marbles  ourselves.  It  seems  to  me 
that  spirits  have  about  the  same  idea  of  wealth  as 
we  adults  have  of  the  marbles  and  foibles  of  our 
youth ;  we  have  got  past  them.  Thus  the  Goulds, 
Vanderbilts,  Astors,  Sages,  Fields,  etc.,  are  simply 
children  who  have  great  accumulations  of  marbles 
through  luck  and  skill,  and  we,  or  rather  the  spirits, 
can  simply  wonder  what  they  will  do  with  them 
when  they  are  done  playing. 

I  am  not  forgetting  the  influence  and  bearing  that 
wealth  may  have  on  one's  soul  or  mental  being.  I 
am  not  forgetting  the  independence  of  thought  that 


DETACHED   THOUGHTS.  277 

affluence  sometimes  gives  its  possessor.  I  know 
many  men  who  have  been  brave  in  expression  beyond 
their  fellows,  who  would  not  have  been  thus  leaders 
of  thought  but  for  their  inherited  or  acquired  wealth. 
True,  there  are  exceptions;  let  not  the  "money- 
bags "  of  life  flatter  themselves  that  these  exceptions 
are  the  rule;  for,  as  a  whole,  wealth  narrows  most 
men,  or  else  the  quality  of  narrowness, —  caution, 
cold-bloodedness,  selfishness,  are  combined  more  or 
less  with  the  luck  or  parsimony  which  have  been  the 
factors  of  such  accumulation.  It  is  better  to  have 
hope  without  wealth  than  to  have  wealth  without 
hope  ;  better  still  to  have  both.  There  is  much  truth 
in  the  orphic  saying  of  Emerson:  "A  man  takes 
from  his  soul  what  he  puts  into  his  money-chest." 


XXVII. 

THE  BOSTON  OUTLOOK. 

Thoughts  that  the  locality  suggests  to  a  Spiritualist. 

I  think  the  Spiritualists  who  live  in,  especially  if 
they  are  natives  of,  Boston  have  good  reasons  for 
being  proud  of  their  locality.  I  do  not  mean  that  it 
is  of  the  "  burning  bush  "  order, —  a  place  to  put  off 
one's  shoes,  because  of  its  being  holy  ground, — for  a 
good  deal  of  its  terra  firma  is  artificial ;  but  I  do  not 
count  that  as  in  any  sense  unholy,  for  that  has  been 
a  decided  improvement  upon  the  original  first  out- 
line of  it  as  nature  made  it,  or  God,  if  one  likes  that 
expression  better. 

Part  of  this  artificial  addition,  a  very  small  part, 
to  be  sure,  has  been  selected  by  a  liberal  Spiritualist 
and  dedicated  to  the  spirit  world,  and  a  spiritual 
temple  erected  thereon,  and  yet,  with  that  creditable 
event  in  my  mind,  I  am  not  proud  of  Boston  for  any 
special  holiness,  and  so  what  I  am  going  to  say  I  do 
so  with  my  "shoes  "  on,  uninfluenced  by  the  Horebic 
injunction.  I  was  saying,  we  Spiritualists  who  live 
in  Boston  have  many  reasons  to  be  proud  of  it.  It  is 
a  bright  and  respectable  old  place  for  a  new  country, 

278 


THE  BOSTON   OUTLOOK.  279 

or  new  to  Caucassian  life,  as  America  is.  In  one  of 
Plutarch's  records  of  "Ancient  Lives,"  a  man  says: 
"I  thank  the  gods  that  I  am  a  man  and  not  a  woman, 
a  freeman  and  not  a  slave,  a  Greek  and  not  a  barba- 
rian." Never  having  been  a  woman,  I  cannot  say  as 
the  Grecian  did  ;  one,  also,  is  not  very  sure  how  free 
he  is  or  how  enslaved,  and  so,  also,  would  I  be  care- 
ful how  I  look  down  upon  the  barbarian,  for  such 
are  as  liable  to  be  in  our  very  midst  as  on,  or  beyond, 
the  frontiers ;  still  the  Grecian's  remark  is  an  analo- 
gous one  to  my  expression  of  pride  in  being  a  Bos- 
toman. 

I  am  aware  Boston  would  have  been  Boston  with- 
out my  aid,  or  the  aid  of  three  or  four  ancestral  gen- 
erations who  may  have  been  an  atom  or  two  in  it 
from  its  earlier  days.  I  am  aware,  also,  that  all  over 
this  broad  land  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  this 
"Hub,"  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  who  have  as  much 
inherent  right  to  be  proud  of  it  as  I  have  ;  so,  while 
I  express  my  pride  in  being  thus  generically  con- 
nected with  the  locality,  I  do  not  put  on  any  airs,  or 
prevent  any  distant  ones  from  having  their  pride  in 
this  or  any  other  place  on  the  world's  map. 

I  have  something  to  say  about  Boston,  and  I  may 
get  it  said  after  awhile.  By  Boston  I  do  not  mean 
the  little  peninsular  on  the  coast  of  the  Bay  State  of 
two  or  three  square  miles  of  land,  which  the  Indians 
called  Shawrnut,  nor  it  with  the  accretions  of  terri- 
tory, of  which  I  have  spoken,  by  the  "removal  of 
mountains  "  in  the  neighborhood  and  casting  them 
into  the  sea,  thus  doubling  or  trebling  its  area ;  nor 


280  SHADOWS. 

it  with  the  supplements  of  contiguous  cities  and 
towns  by  annexation,  so  that  now,  geographically 
speaking,  it  has  a  territory  over  ten  times  what  it 
had  when  it  first  became  a  figure  in  history.  I 
include  its  vicinity,  or  the  general  indefinite  local- 
ity which  goes  to  make  up  the  intellectual  atmos- 
phere of  this  still  small,  but  may  I  not  say  rather 
brilliant,  spot  in  the  world  of  letters  and  of  thought. 

To  having  any  claim  of  fanciful  fitness  to  being 
the  "Hub  of  the  Universe,"  we  have  got  to  include 
Concord,  with  its  past  and  living  lights,  and  Har- 
vard College,  and  other  objects,  going  by  other 
names ;  and  then  we  must  remember  the  universe 
includes  some  undiscovered  country  outside  of  earth, 
—  and,  any  way,  it  is  an  awful  strain  to  call  it  the 
"Hub,"  and  yet  who  does  not  know  what  is  meant 
when  the  "Hub"  is  spoken  of?  But  with  all  these 
qualifications  and  reductions,  it  seems  to  me  to  be 
more  of  a  "  Hub "  than  any  spot  of  which  I  can 
think.  So,  though  I  do  not  consider  it  a  "  Hub,"  or 
call  it  one,  I  always  consider  the  appellation  compli- 
mentary, whether  intended  so  or  not. 

Historically,  politically,  religiously,  learnedly,  finan- 
cially, socially,  this  Boston,  in  its  enlarged  sense,  has 
much  to  its  credit,  and,  of  course,  some  to  its  debit 
or  discredit,  but  the  balance  is  very  large  on  its 
credit  side,  its  enemies,  if  it  has  any,  will  admit 
that.  Of  course,  many  people,  —  people  that  are 
not  only  proud  of  this  city,  but  people  that  this 
city  is  proud  of,  and  who,  by  their  learning  and  their 
reputation  or  influence  have  helped  to  make  it  the 


THE   BOSTON  OUTLOOK.  281 

conspicuity  it  is,  and  who  will  agree  to  all  I  have 
said  as  yet,  but  will  not  go  with  me  now  in  saying 
that  one  of  the  things  that  helps  make  me  proud 
of  this  locality,  that  enhances  its  value  to  me,  is  the 
reception  it  gives  to  modern  Spiritualism. 

How  many  pleasant  or  intelligent  faces  will  fall  a 
shade  or  two  on  such  an  intimation  as  this;  without 
any  basis  of  truth  such  will  of  course  think,  and  are 
happy  in  knowing,  that  it  is  not  true,  and,  if  it  was, 
it  would  be  retrogression  and  a  stain  rather  than  the 
source  of  pride  to  anyone.  They  might  be  charitable, 
perhaps,  to  the  writer,  and  suppose  him  to  be  living 
in  his  little  world  and  meeting  Spiritualists  only,  and 
if  meeting  others  not  counting  them,  he  has  mistaken 
the  extent, —  strabismus  is  in  his  eye,  and  he  thinks 
the  world  squints,  as  our  aunt  Nancy,  at  the  North 
End,  once  said,  whose  husband  was  a  Millerite,  and 
I  was  laughing  at  her  for  such  notions,  when  she 
replied  :  "  Only  think  of  it,  how  many  do  believe  it. 
I  hardly  see  a  person  who  does  not  believe  it,  and  is 
not  preparing  for  it."  Well,  I  suppose  we  all  do  see 
things  pretty  much  as  we  wish  to,  or  as  our  interest 
dictates. 

Still,  it  pleases  me  to  feel  that  I  am  right,  and 
proud  of  even  being  proud  of  the  fact  as  something 
of  a  feature  of  the  locality  at  the  present  time. 
Modern  Spiritualism  started,  as  we  all  know,  in  a 
small  way,  in  the  western  part  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  less  than  two  score  years  ago,  and  has  spread 
now  all  over  the  world ;  at  least,  in  every  part  of  the 
civilized  and  the  uncivilized  world,  also,  are  found  its 


282  SHADOWS. 

adherents,  and  the  practical  working  of  the  law  that 
is  fundamental  in  its  teachings,  and  its  believers,  now 
running  into  the  millions,  and  has  already  become 
one  of  the  large  sects  of  the  world  (using  "  sects  " 
as  a  general  term  of  division  in  religious  thought), 
haring  a  literature  also  of  no  mean  pretension,  and 
publications,  magazines,  and  newspapers  in  a  dozen 
different  languages. 

In  thus  spreading  itself  more  or  less  all  over  the 
world,  it  seems  to  me  to  have  found  a  congenial 
atmosphere  in  this  vicinity.  I  am  aware  there  is  no 
place  anywhere  that  can  be  called  its  special  center. 
But  where  is  there  more  of  it  concentrated  thau  is 
the  case  here?  which  seems  to  make  it  almost  a  duty 
to  notice  the  fact  before  finishing  this  book,  and 
which  I  am  now  doing.  Look  at  the  meetings  for 
spiritualistic  teachings  that  this  locality  sustains. 
See  the  number  of  mediums  that  dispense  the  idea  in 
sittings  or  seances,  in  tests,  messages,  healing,  and 
other  ways,  and  by  other  names  sometimes ;  and  with 
regard  to  the  more  sensuous  phenomena  there  seems 
to  be  in  this  city  about  all  the  time  a  dozen  mediums 
for  materialization,  to  say  nothing  about  other  phys- 
ical phenomena.  The  manifestations  for  teachings 
and  for  tests  also,  in  a  private  way,  are  enjoyed  in 
all  parts  of  the  city,  even  in  the  higher  walks  of 
social  life  that  the  world  knows  but  little  about. 
This,  to  some  extent,  is  so  everywhere  both  in  this 
country  and  England  and  on  the  continent,  but  it 
is  remarkably  so  in  this  vicinity  of  which  I  am  now 
speaking. 


THE  BOSTON   OUTLOOK.  283 

Speakers  and  believers  all  over  the  country  look 
fondly  to  this  city  for  the  rising  thought,  as  if  it 
were  the  home  of  this  "Dawning  Light,"  and  the 
prestige  of  this  locality  often  endorses  the  utterances 
of  unknown  persons.  Thoughts  acceptable  here  are 
apt  from  that  fact  to  be  acceptable  elsewhere,  and 
thus  the  push  or  the  Boston  momentum  is  felt  at  a 
great  distance,  and  almost  everywhere. 

The  fact  that  the  first  spiritual  temple,  of  which 
we  have  before  spoken,  is  blossoming  out  here  in  its 
fine  architectural  proportions,  is  but  one  of  the  point- 
ers that  show  in  thus  owning  up  of  my  pride  in  this 
locality  that  I  am  not  drawing  on  my  imagination 
for  my  facts. 

I  once  heard  the  Rev.  Nehemiah  Adams,  as  he  had 
just  returned  from  the  death-bed  scene  of  a  very 
pious  member  of  his  church,  relate  the  circumstance 
at  a  large  meeting  then  being  held  in  Tremont  Tem- 
ple. It  is  too  long  a  story  to  relate  here ;  but  it  was 
about  the  seeing  of  a  spirit  that  he,  the  dying  man, 
knew  when  a  mortal ;  and  the  circumstances  were 
such,  and  the  prophecy  that  had  been  suggested  by 
the  manifestation  was  of  such  a  character,  that  it 
proved  there  was  no  decay  of  mentality  as  the  life  of 
that  man  was  closing  in.  But  to  Mr.  Adams,  his 
pastor,  instead  of  this  being  a  natural  fact,  it  was 
looked  upon  and  spoken  of  as  a  divine  one, —  an  angel 
had  manifested  to  this  brother  on  account  of  his  great 
and  manifested  piety. 

The  reverend  gentleman  remarked  after  narrating 
the  circumstances:  "The  curtain  between  the  two 


284  SHADOWS. 

worlds  was  thinner  than  it  once  was."  I  have  no 
doubt  of  that  fact  myself;  but  where  was  his  authority, 
outside  of  modern  Spiritualism,  for  saying  so?  The 
thought  suggested  to  me  by  the  remark  was  whether 
there  were  not,  and  always  had  been  "thin  places" 
on  this  earth, —  places  more  open  to  spiritual  influ- 
ences than  other  parts  of  the  earth's  surface. 

As  in  the  human  organization  there  are  ganglionic 
centers  or  spots,  or  sensitive  places,  which  are  not 
universal  in  the  human  system,  so  there  may  be,  so 
to  speak,  ganglionic  spots  or  centers  on  the  earth's 
surface.  Of  course  it  is  likely  to  be  as  much  or  more 
in  the  race  living  on  the  spot  as  in  the  location ;  but 
may  be  that  is  not  so  certain.  It  would  seem  as  if 
Palestine,  Greece,  Rome  and  Egypt,  and,  later,  Brit- 
ain and  many  other  places,  suggest  such  an  idea  which 
has  had  so  much  to  do  with  human  history. 

Palestine,  for  instance,  only  about  as  large,  and  as 
unattractive  as  Wales,  has  left  its  mark  deeply  on 
the  human  race,  giving  the  civilized  world  its  religion, 
and  Phoenicia,  almost  a  part  of  it,  the  alphabet. 
Why  did  it  happen  so  on  that  circumscribed  and 
unattractive  spot,  when  there  were  so  many  superior 
ones  in  every  respect  ?  It  is  said  that  Frederick  II. 
was  sent  to  Syria  against  his  will ;  the  church  perse- 
cuted him,  and  one  of  the  charges  was  his  saying 
that,  "  If  God  had  ever  seen  Naples,  he  never  would 
have  selected  Palestine  for  his  chosen  people."  I 
quote  this  circumstance  to  show  it  is  not  the  attrac- 
tive features  of  a  locality  that  make  it  one  of  these 
ganglionic  or  "  thin  places."  Neither  dare  I  say  that 


THE  BOSTON   OUTLOOK.  285 

Boston  is  any  more  ganglionic,  or  thin,  or  sensitive, 
or  magnetic  than  many  other  spots  in  the  American 
domain;  only  I  have  uttered  a  thought  indigenous, 
one  may  say,  to  a  "  Hubite,"  and  I  must  try  to  make 
it  reasonable.  I  do  not  seem  to  have  any  inclination 
to  write  on  an  ethnological  subject,  and  I  do  not 
know  as  I  am  capable  of  doing  so  in  an  interesting 
manner  if  I  had ;  only  in  this  closing  chapter,  as  this 
city  in  its  elastic  or  enlarged  sense  seems  to  be  open- 
ing itself  to  our  thought,  the  fact  pleases  me,  and  I 
felt  like  saying  so,  wondering  also  why  it  has  rela- 
tively grown  into  such  a  marked  locality  for  modern 
Spiritualism. 

The  careful  reader  of  the  preceding  chapters  of  this 
book  will  have  very  easily  got  the  author's  rationale 
of  the  fact  just  stated,  that  it  is  such  a  marked  local- 
ity, and  that  naturally  is  his  belief  in  the  basic  truth 
that  modern  Spiritualism  teaches,  viz.,  that  there  is 
an  intelligent  spiritual  environment,  which  means 
practically  both  a  general  and  a  special  supervision 
of  the  affairs  of  mundane  life  by  the  spirit  world. 
That  such  supervising  spirits  saw  a  tendency,  or, 
using  spiritualistic  parlance,  finding  conditions  right, 
have  influenced  one  to  the  point  which  by  these 
remarks  seems  to  have  been  reached  in  the  present 
modern  spiritual  aspect  in  this  vicinity. 

I  hope  there  will  be  no  solstice  or  retrogression  in 
the  movement,  and  the,  so  to  speak,  Horebic  charac- 
ter of  this  locality  be  permanent,  now  having  been 
ornamented  or  marked  by  the  erection  of  the  first 
sphitual  temple  of  attractive  magnitude,  and  dedi- 


286  SHADOWS. 

cated  to  the  spirits,  as  it  should  be,  it  having  been 
inspired  from  that  source;  so,  having  said  I  was 
proud  of  being  a  Bostonian,  and  giving  at  length  my 
reasons  for  being  so,  I  hope  the  feeling  will  be  per- 
manent and  enduring,  and  the  time  come,  as  its 
teachings  become  more  and  more  understood,  when 
all  the  people  will  be  like-minded,  proud  of  this  local- 
ity for  its  sake,  and  rejoice  in  the  spread  of  this  light 
which  has  begun  to  shine  in  the  world,  and  brightens 
as  it  continues.  The  city  of  Boston  has  quite  a  his- 
tory for  a  spot  not  yet  three  centuries  old  ;  has  been 
the  mother  also  of  many  other  places,  and,  as  we 
have  said,  is  quite  a  conspicuity, — far  larger,  in  an 
ideal  or  transcendental  sense,  than  are  thousands  of 
places  of  greater  geographical  extent.  It  seems, 
then,  to  be  a  fitting  place  for  Spiritualism  to  have 
got  a  decided  impetus,  as  it  manifestly  has,  and  if 
celebrated  already  for  many  things,  it  will  be  even 
more  so  for  this  dawning  light  when  its  truth  has  got 
implanted  in  the  general  mind,  as  will  certainly  be 
the  case  if  it  be  a  truth.  I  am  writing  as  if  it  was, 
because  I  have  solid  reasons  for  knowing  it  to  be  so. 

Seems  to  me  if  any  modern  "Jacob"  should  have 
a  dream,  here  would  be  his  pillar  or  bethel,  where  he 
would  see  the  ladder  reaching  Heaven  with  the  angels 
ascending  and  descending  thereon,  except  that  the 
Bible,  and  modern  Spiritualism  especially,  teaches 
that  not  in  this  mountain  nor  in  Jerusalem,  nor  even 
in  Boston,  is  there  any  deific  or  angelic  exclusiveness ; 
but  the  first  round  of  that  ladder  rests  wherever 
there  is  a  truth-loving  human  being. 


THE  BOSTON   OUTLOOK.  287 

Coleridge,  translating  the  poetry  of  Schiller,  makes 
it  read  thus, —  it  is  not  a  literal  truth,  but  seems  to 
be  a  suggestive  one,  so  I  use  it  as  a  terminus  to  this 
chapter : — 

"  The  spirits'  ladder, 

That  from  this  gross  and  visible  world  of  dust, 
Even  to  the  starry  world  with  thousand  rounds, 
Builds  itself  up,  on  which  the  unseen  powers 
Move  up  and  down  on  heavenly  ministries, — 
These  see  the  glance,  the  unsealed  eye, 
Of  Jupiter's  glad  children  born  iu  luster." 


288  SHADOWS. 


THEODOKE  PARKER. 


The  earth  is  marked  in  many  places 
With  rocky  scratches  and  furrows  deep ; 

Boulders  huge  have  left  their  traces, 
As  diamond-pointed  icebergs  slowly  creep. 

Records,  or  scriptures,  writ  on  stone, 

Humanity  is  fast  translating, — 
Reads  wisdom  from  the  Great  Unknown, 

And  grows  religious  speculating. 

So  the  moral  world  has  "  boulder  scratches," 
Made  by  heroic  souls  in  passing  through  it; 

Prophets  and  poets, —  "  bearers  of  despatch  es,"- 
Lights  in  a  world  that  hardly  knew  it. 

History,  rich  in  storied  names  now  dead, 
None  brighter  shine  than  that  great  teacher; 

Today  is  brighter  for  the  light  he  shed,  — 
The  world  still  needs  just  such  a  preacher. 

The  "  boulder  scratch  "  of  Theodore  Parker, — 
Oh,  who  would  now  that  mark  efface?  — 

Put  out  his  light,  and  make  it  darker, 
Whose  transit  was  a  blessing  to  the  race? 

His  life,  in  years,  how  short  It  seems? 

How  long  in  manly  work  for  human  good ! 
Religion  in  him  was  life, —  not  dreams ; 

Mute  are  his  foes ;  his  mission  understood. 

The  voice  of  bigotry  now  is  hushed 

That  called  him  heretic,  though  sent  of  God ; 

Full  many  a  sham  by  him  lies  crushed, 
And  others  safely  walk  where  he  in  peril  trod. 


I  Shi 

^bc 


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STAMPED  BELOW. 


